Q: What can we learn about the coronavirus from a historical perspective?
A: The United States is now in the seventh month of the coronavirus pandemic with more than 5.4 million cases and climbing. What can we do to stop this virus from spreading?
Typically, life-threatening medical queries such as a pandemic are evaluated through research and concluded with evidence-based consensus. With ample time, we might better understand the effect, transmission, longevity, immunity, host entry and susceptibilities of the coronavirus, but fast-tracked publications on coronavirus have enabled an expeditious learning curve.
History has shown the deadliest pandemics – the bubonic plague and the Spanish flu – were best controlled with quarantine efforts. Nobel Prize-winning medical researcher Macfarlane Burnet, who spent much of his life studying the influenza virus, concluded that one-third of the global population was infected with the Spanish flu and the worldwide death toll was a minimum of 50 million, possibly 100 million.
Frequently, a historic perspective is critical to implement strategies to mitigate the spread of a disease and prevent casualties. To that end, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published their retrospective review of the impact of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic on Oct. 17, 2006. This panel of experts discussed what lessons were learned and how to best prepare the country for an appropriate and swift response of future pandemics.
In the early 1900s, the research showed, efforts involving quarantine, personal hygiene, hand washing, restrictions on crossing state borders and, in some states, wearing masks were established. California politicians posted signs: “Wear a mask and save your life.”
More than 100 years later, we are in the midst of a national emergency and the worst pandemic of the 21st century. Despite modern microbiologic assays, medical technology, state-of-the-art medical imaging, multiple classes of antibiotics and the highest-educated medical experts, we have been unable to stop the coronavirus from spreading.
We must ask ourselves: With all we have available in the USA, what can we do to prevent transmission of coronavirus? The evidence is clear that masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The more people wearing masks, the better.
– Susan Raschal, DO, Covenant Allergy and Asthma Care; member, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society
Staff File Photo / Dr. Susan Raschal