I've been reading a lot of information, and seeing results on social media. Information about how the Spanish flu epidemic (as it was called in those days) was handled.
The most popular social "call to arms" concerns wearing masks.
They didnt legislate masks back in those days. People weren't forced to wear them.
While it is true that the federal and state governments weren't creating mandates on the issues, most towns and cities did make laws.
Rather, they enforced existing laws.
Back in those days, there were laws called Quarantine laws.
If your household had a contagious illness (measles, diptheria, whooping cough, smallpox) public health officials came and posted a great big, very red sign on your door.
QUARANTINE by order of...
With that sign on the door, no one left the home. No one entered the home, or if they did, they had to remain throughout the quarantine period.
Doctors, nurses, and police were the only people allowed access, and even then had to follow strict routines, which included sanitizing. Sanitizing sometimes included complete changes of clothing.
Groceries and medicines were delivered to the doorstep. Neighbors could drop off gifts on the porch.
Once they left, the subjects of the quarantine could bring in the deliveries.
There was no question of going to work.
There was no thought of going out to eat.
No one went to the park or the playground. In some cases, even the back yard was off limits.
People didn't protest this, although they grumbled and had the same worries we do today. Keeping job, paying rent, nor having machinery repossessed.
They didn't protest because they knew.
Infectious diseases were frequent, common, and deadly if the protocols were not followed. There were fatalities any time one of these visited a neighborhood, or a town, or a city.
But the quick imposing of a quarantine could lower the deaths and limit any lingering impairment. Centuries of experience had proven this many times. And if it could be stopped in the neighborhood before it reached into the town, there would be even fewer deaths and disabilities. Everyine wins.
No one questioned it.
If anyone thought of their constitutional rights, they tended to focus on the one first mentioned. The right to Life. They knew the quarantine laws were the most effective defense of the right to life.
After the Spanish flu, we became more educated.
We made new discoveries.
We discovered bacteria, viruses, antibiotics, and vaccinations.
We learned surgeries and therapies. Epidemics, renamed pandemics, were a thing of the past.
And
We forgot.
Time was proving out how much better off we were, overall. There were outbreaks of things, usually in strictly limited geographic areas. These were handled by the combination of better medicines and the routines of the quarantine programs.
We were smug.
We could handle it.
Until the day and the disease came and there was no controlled access. Everyone was going everywhere. With everything.
And the virus spread around the world.
It's still spreading.
So.
Do not share information without understanding it, if you can help it.
Before you condemn proven effective actions, consider the history behind them and ask yourself in what ways things have changed and what changes we should keep and which are not working as we have hoped.
Above all else, remember that the right to life comes before the right to liberty.
