Inside the Plague Doctor’s Mask: Fear and Symbolism in the 1600s

When Families Crumbled Under Disease’s Shadow When Families Crumbled Under Disease’s Shadow (image credits: unsplash) What happens when death becomes so common that families abandon their own children? Medieval chroniclers described the abandonment of family members, especially children, as one of the most disturbing aspects of the Black Death. This wasn’t just emotional trauma – …

The Deadly Scourge That Terrorized Humanity The Deadly Scourge That Terrorized Humanity (image credits: pixabay) Imagine a disease so terrifying that it killed roughly one in three people it touched, leaving survivors permanently scarred and often blind. Smallpox had a mortality rate of about 30%, killing at least 1 in 3 people infected, making it …

When Fear Meets Ignorance: The Perfect Storm When Fear Meets Ignorance: The Perfect Storm (image credits: flickr) Throughout history, pandemics have consistently unleashed two deadly forces – the disease itself and the misinformation that spreads alongside it. Because misinformation often spreads faster than facts, panic-inducing rumors have regularly outpaced medical knowledge during health crises. This …

Wartime Censorship’s Deadly Legacy Wartime Censorship’s Deadly Legacy (image credits: flickr) When death came knocking in 1918, newspapers across America kept their doors shut and their blinds drawn. A little over a year later, it passed the 1918 Sedition Act, which made it a crime to say anything the government perceived as harming the country …

The Birth of Quarantine: Venice’s Revolutionary Response to the Black Death The Birth of Quarantine: Venice’s Revolutionary Response to the Black Death (image credits: unsplash) Quarantine, from the Italian “quaranta” meaning 40, was adopted as an obligatory means of separating persons, animals, and goods that may have been exposed to a contagious disease. Since the …