Similia Vol 33 No 2 – December 2020

Author: Peter Morrell

Abstract

The Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has not only unleashed an ongoing, seemingly interminable health crisis in many countries across the world, it has  also inflicted a massive and probably long-lasting downturn in the economic fortunes of many countries, whether or not they were ‘rich’ or ‘poor’ to  start with. However, this pandemic has also brought into the public domain some other interesting elements concerning disease diagnosis,  classification, prevention, epidemiology, causes of death and treatment. Some of these elements, it is true, were well-known before the pandemic  struck, such as the faith in vaccines and the test and trace method of controlling the spread of a disease in a population. Others however are less well  known. This article will therefore focus on just a few of these new or previously unknown aspects of the subject and explore their meaning and  significance for medicine as a whole, while at the same time exploring the historical origins of some of them in 18th century medicine.