Did you know that "Covid parties" have a historical precedent? That massive social unrest and riots destroyed entire hospitals in 1830 Russia, when the Tsar, in order to stop the cholera coming from Central Asia, demolished streets, destroyed bridges, and futilely ordered 60,000 soldiers to prevent people from moving to and from urban centers?

In the extremely interesting overview of pandemics that have historically affected humanity, Christian W. McMillen describes how history is influenced by pandemics and how social behaviors affect the evolution of pandemics. Extremely interesting from a medical perspective anyway, the study of pandemics also provides unexpected discoveries about culture and politics.

From the Justinian plague (which killed over ten thousand people in one night in Byzantine Constantinople) to the 2014 Ebola epidemic, McMillen covers the significant pandemics in human history (plague, tuberculosis, malaria, smallpox, cholera, influenza, and HIV/AIDS), explaining how the distinct biological characteristics of each disease affected the spread of the pandemic. He also analyzes the respective state responses - such as quarantine, isolation, travel restrictions, and other forms of social control - and pays particular attention to the post-pandemic development of public health and the explosion of medical research. Writing in December 2016 and evaluating the relationship between poverty, diseases, and the geography of epidemics, McMillen predicted the need for governments to learn from past experiences and to cooperate globally and proactively to prevent future epidemics. Unfortunately, his advice was not heeded.