Freedom vs. COVID Regulation
Early winter of 2020, my team gathered for lunch (for the last time in a long time) as we watched the World Health Organization announcement declaring the novel coronavirus COVID-19 a global pandemic.
Endless emergency meetings revealed we would have to change our daily habits and workflow. Lack of basic PPE and testing supplies revealed humans were not prepared to engage a tiny virus particle which was able to adapt quicker than our procedures. The concept of legal freedom vs. regulation to protect the public became a routine sticking point for all aspects of our lives from this point forward.
Pest houses to Quarantine
As I learned from Dr. Price through narrating this audiobook, every plague America has faced challenged the premise of individual freedom. From the early colonial days when those appearing sick were forcibly imprisoned inside ‘pest houses’, to a mere suspicion of contagion would lead to neighbors burning your home and all belongings. Author Price also sets the stage for historical legal precedents and challenges through her researched narrative style.
Source of debate
If you’d like to learn more about why individual states reacted as they did in 2020, and why the debate about mandatory vaccination continues to divide Americans so strongly – I highly recommend taking a listen to Plagues in the Nation: How Epidemics Shaped America.
‘Plagues’ delves into the clash between individual freedom and public regulation, tracing how past epidemics have shaped America’s legal landscape. Narrating this powerful exploration of our historical responses to disease has been an honor.
Honored to be the narrator for such a studied and important book, I found the personal antidotes and family histories to be compelling as well as educational. Examining yellow fever, Spanish flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID, Polly J. Price explains how plagues and outbreaks throughout American history have shaped our legal landscape, and also how law and government affected the outcomes of those epidemics. Some more effective than others.
Ordnances
For example, spitting in public used to be considered a commonplace necessity. Until the tuberculosis outbreak, when small towns and cities passed ordnances with fines against spitting in an attempt to stop the spread of tuberculosis. This may be why spitting is still considered a nasty habit in the court of public opinion today.
Vaccine Development
The book also offers an education on vaccine development, from variolation (the process involved taking a sample from the lesions on an infected person and placing it under the skin of someone who had never been infected using a needle) vs inoculation which were the precursors to today’s modern vaccines. After reading this history, I now understand the source of misinformation on the current COVID-19 vaccines – much of it appears to be cultural references passed down among generations. Vaccination by physical force also took place in American history, which was shocking to read.
Plagues of the Future
Dr. Price offers her expert legal review of the US government’s response to epidemics through history and draws with larger conclusions about COVID-19 with the reforms needed for the next plague. Is our current national covid preparedness plan enough?
Today, WHO declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. The question is, have we learned enough from outbreaks in the past to protect our future?
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