Corona Daily 083: Father of Social Distancing

Sanitary measures described include: (III) Through edicts, the population must be warned that citizens who do not declare new cases - cases that occur in their houses and in other houses - within six hours will be prosecuted.

(IX) Meetings, dances and entertainments are strictly forbidden.

(XXII) The pharmacists must provide the poorest with the necessary treatments. A list of the citizens must be kept to distinguish between the poorer and the richer. The richer will pay for their treatments and the city government will pay for the paupers.

(XXXIII) It is highly recommended to be careful when shaking hands.

(XXXIV) All citizens are compelled not to leave their houses. Only one member per household is allowed to go out for shopping.

(XXXVI) People allowed to go out must bear with them a cane measuring 6 feet long. It is mandatory that people keep this distance from one another.

(XXXVIII) A large rail (parabanda) must be positioned in front of the counters in the shops in which meat, bread, wine and foodstuff are sold so that citizens will keep their distance from the counter itself.

These measures are from a manual (1588) published 433 years ago.

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Alghero is a small town on the island of Sardinia, in Italy. In November 1582, a sailor arriving from Marseille imported plague from France. The disease was known as Buboes that affected the groin area. Alghero had Morbers, plague guardians, to check outsiders at the borders and stop them if they showed symptoms. This French sailor escaped scrutiny, became ill and died, but not before starting an epidemic.

This was much before modern science; diseases were still considered a divine punishment. They were caused by “bad air” (mal aria) and vinegar was the sole antiseptic. Plague treatments ranged from bathing in one’s urine (disgusting), to drawing the poison out of buboes by rubbing that part with the rump of a live chicken (absurd).

Against this background, appeared Quinto Tiberio Angelerio, a 50 year old doctor who had studied abroad. Fortunately, he was fresh from Sicily, which had experienced its own plague epidemic in 1575.

Angelerio took charge and set up a triple sanitary cordon around the city walls. The measures suggested by him: no handshakes, 6 foot distance, cancellation of all entertainment made him so unpopular; people wanted to lynch him. However, as more and more people died, his authority came to be accepted. People began self-isolating for forty days. (Quarantine comes from quaranta giorni, meaning forty days in Italian).

Some Italians secretly visited the houses of the infected, to meet friends, play the guitar and drink together. They were duly prosecuted.

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Angelerio also passed a decree specifying the eligibility of the gravediggers. Only those who had already contracted and survived the plague qualified. Theirs was a high risk job because they would transport confessional booths to the bedsides of dying patients, and deal with the dead bodies. Angelerio was ahead of his time, because the concept of immunity was not yet known.

A plague hospital, lazaretto, to isolate infected patients was an Italian concept. They were built all over Sardinia. Part-hospital, part-prison, patients were usually taken there by the city’s plague guardians.

Angelerio made certain the lazarettos in Alghero were efficient and humane. The plague guardians had to record everything that came in and went out – beds, furniture and food. The lazarettos were free for the poorest. Orphaned babies without a wet nurse were bottle-fed with goat milk. Goats were allowed to roam freely within the complex.

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The outbreak in Anghero lasted eight months, and then there was no epidemic for the next sixty years. When the next plague happened, the first thing that was referred to was Angelerio’s manual. (He had died in 1617). During the 1652 outbreak, the island followed to the letter his instructions, including the 6 feet social distancing. (I recommend reading the 57 instructions from his book).

Recent research suggests that 6 feet is indeed safer than three or four feet.

Ravi