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Chapter 2 - New Dogs, Old Tricks

Fighting Covid-19 with Ancient Preventive Tactics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2021

Peter Baldwin
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

Since there was, as yet, no cure nor a vaccine, the coronavirus epidemic could be fought only with the traditional tools of population management. Breaking chains of transmission by isolating the ill, identifying the possibly infected, and tracing their contacts – those were the techniques that had for millennia been used against contagious disease. They did duty yet once again. Quarantines were imposed, the ill were isolated, eventually, entire nations were shut down. Many of the precautions used against the cholera epidemics of the nineteenth century were reprised. One of the few big differences now was that goods were no longer disinfected. Some nations, especially in Asia, targeted the infected and their contacts. The Western nations, in contrast, were unable to focus their preventive measures as precisely and ended up shutting down their economies across the board instead.

Type
Chapter
Information
Fighting the First Wave
Why the Coronavirus Was Tackled So Differently Across the Globe
, pp. 31 - 52
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • New Dogs, Old Tricks
  • Peter Baldwin, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Fighting the First Wave
  • Online publication: 12 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009000222.003
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • New Dogs, Old Tricks
  • Peter Baldwin, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Fighting the First Wave
  • Online publication: 12 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009000222.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • New Dogs, Old Tricks
  • Peter Baldwin, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Fighting the First Wave
  • Online publication: 12 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009000222.003
Available formats
×