America's Founding Father, George Washington, used quarantining (prohibition against congregating) during the smallpox outbreak in Boston during the siege of my city in the Revolutionary War.
The writer in the post below this one, apparently had no knowledge about American history when he urged Americans during the COVID-19 plague to ignore prohibitions against congregating and mask wearing.
As a commenter to that post said, General Washington would have kicked that person's posterior to the moon and probably would have had him shot for gross insubordination, encouraging the spread of the smallpox disease during a war.
Washington’s policies of containment
and inoculation developed as a response to the impact that smallpox
epidemics had had on his ability to wage war. Much of his early
military strategizing and administrative effort was put toward solving
the problems smallpox caused for his troops and ensuring a healthy,
reliable military force capable of fighting effectively. Only Washington’s
vigilance in segregating (quarantining) those infected with the disease and his use of
selective inoculation prevented a disastrous epidemic of smallpox among
the troops and militia outside Boston during the siege.
Illustrating the
extreme susceptibility of Continentals to the disease, British writer John
Haygarth wrote in 1793 that, “When General Washington inoculated
his New England Army, there were scarcely men enough free from the
disease, or not liable to take it, to keep guard at the different hospitals.”115
Washington was forced to maintain a nine-month siege as a result
of British attempts to introduce smallpox among American troops, and
the smallpox epidemic in the city, precluded an attack.
Washington was
cautious when confronted with the possibility of biological warfare,
altered his military strategy to accommodate the threat, and succeeded in
protecting his army outside Boston from the devastating consequences of
an epidemic during the first year of the war.
Efforts to contain smallpox
led eventually to the selective use of inoculation during this campaign.
Although an effective preventive medical procedure, inoculation was
not without danger to the army and civilian population.
*******************
Apparently more than one anti-masker and anti-social distancing Trumpublican is unaware of his country's own history. And that guy, Rep. Jim Jordan, serves in the U.S. House!
13 comments:
Trump abandoned his leadership and promoted defiance toward mask and social distance that encouraged half the country into bad habits that kill, if not self, family, friends and neighbors. And now, a country with 350M people have seen 340,000 deaths with hundreds of thousands more to come. On the other hand, countries that take masks and social distance seriously have escaped the wrath of the virus:
China population: 1439M, Covid deaths: 4634.
Japan population: 126.5M, Covid deaths: 3016.
Korea population: 51.64M, Covid deaths: 793.
But ultimately, we have to take responsibility for our beliefs and behaviors. Why did we let Trump and his Republican followers fool us? Why are so many of us so selfish to confuse an effective and protective measure for all as an affront to any sort of individual freedom?
When will those of us fooled by Trump wake up and see that a simple inconvenience of wearing a mask and staying apart from others for a short time could stop the spreading of the virus and end our national nightmare?
Individual freedom/liberty must be tempered by individual responsibility/discipline. It is obvious neither trump or his supporters understand this necessary relationship. Or they simply do not care.
RN, you are absolutely correct. Can you imagine how those folks who discourage mask-wearing and social distancing would have fared during a plague breakout in the 18th century?
Paula Trump will forever be remembered for his botched response to this once-a-century plague. Also, his lackeys in Congress and his easily duped followers.
Paula... while not disputing the general numbers that say Asia by and large has fared better statistically than the US, I wouldn't put too much stock in those numbers from China. They were late to the honesty party regarding the outbreak, held scientists from getting into Wuhan quickly after the outbreak and have a history of playing fast and loose with the facts. Anyone remember Tianamen Square.
Shaw... I am sure Jim Jordan never read any of our history of shared sacrifice and setting aside of "rights" when confronted with a national emergency. Many of the extremists don't even consider the pandemic an emergency, even though President Trump acknowledged as such in his signed declaration.
In fact, they won't even speak to that reality for fear of contradicting the president.
We have a long history of quarantining people and requiring safe distance between infected folks. Most of us here will remember the homes of people with measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough and other contagious diseases regularly posted, like a scarlet letter, the "infected placard" in their front windows when ppl were sick.
During the Revolution, WWII and other times when we did this, were we sheeple, or god Americans?
And what is the difference today besides a few political points?
OT:
So Trump has 21 days to:
*Show us his big, beautiful healthcare plan that’s so much better than the ACA
*Show us the money from Mexico for his useless wall
*Show us all the companies that brought manufacturing back from overseas
*Show us how we “won” in his disastrous trade war
Waiting...
He can't because he didn't accomplish his biggest promises! A real dud. And a liar!
ROCCO... Infrastructure week. Has that already happened?
How about evidence of election fraud? Every court in the land is still waiting for that. Even as the extremists demand the courts follow the law.
I think we're also still waiting for the virus to disappear once the weather warms up. Unless he was talking about 2021.
A nuke deal with his bromance buddy in North Korea?
Anything else?
Paula, Shaw, Dave, & RN:
it's clear to me that those who willingly choose
to ignore reality will pay the price for their lack
of common sense.
A virus (Covid-19) is like a wildfire; it can
and will spread as long as it finds a favorable
environment in which to grow/multiply, and that
is all. It does not care about politics, or race,
or social position- it will keep infecting.. and
killing ..as long as there as hosts for it to
infect.
You could categorize the actions
of those saying "Covid-19 is a hoax" , and
"It's only like a bad cold" and "We're turning
the corner on this" as stupidity of the
lowest order, which spills over into
cultist territory.
The thing people need to recognize is this:
Trumpism IS a cult. It has devolved into
a Death Cult. Rational thinking, logic?
Out the window. Does NOT apply here.
Jim Jones, and death flavored
Kool-Aid are the coin in this sad realm. ...
And these Trump cultists/fools will die for
their Dear Leader..
One Louisiana Republican Congressman-elect already has..
https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/2020/12/29/
louisiana-congressman-elect-luke-letlow-dies-covid/
4082977001/
As a truth, it is sad to see human
beings devolve their thinking to the level of cockroaches...
Actually, not even that, because roaches and rats split when
the ship is sinking...
Yeah. How come Trump's people have't caught on to his scams? Promise them everything take there money and deliver ZIP!
I think my blood pressure went up 40 points reading all this. I said on another blog that D-day is called the longest day. I think Jan 19th, 2020 will become the new longest day.
Anonymous @3:39
I've been calling Trump's supporters "cultists" for a long time. Almost everything he's done would have been horrifying to those same cultists had those actions been done by a Democrat. Obviously trump appeals to something within there psyches that is difficult for people with functioning rational minds to understand. The frightening thing is that so many millions of our fellow Americans were and are so easily swayed by a pro-fascist. That's what keeps most of us awake at night
Mike So true. Each day until the 20th feels like the Longest Day!
Well, it's been scientifically proven that masks don't work. I saw this on the blog of Minus FJ, where he claimed that lefties not accepting this means they are anti-science. I also saw this on the FB page of my rightwing cousin. Although FB had flagged it as false.
Derv, Minus has been wrong ABOUT EVERYTHING HE'S PREDICTED. EVERYTHING!
That bit of fallacious argument he's thrown up is just more of his b.s. Minus is unable to face his errors in thinking, so he doubles down on his b.s.
Best thing to do is ignore him. It's easy and you'll feel wonderful for doing so.
PS Donald Trump will soon be an EX-PRESIDENT, and JOE BIDEN WILL BE POTUS!
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