Romola Davenport

When the covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020 there was no stockpile of coronavirus vaccines, and no cure. Instead, governments were forced to fall back on a repertoire of very traditional measures to control epidemics: surveillance, lockdowns, quarantines, and cordons sanitaire. To many people’s surprise, these measures were quite effective in the early stages of the pandemic. Countries that implemented strict quarantines, such as Australia and New Zealand, avoided large outbreaks. In countries with high levels of infection, lockdowns were followed by falling case numbers and deaths.  

Did similar strategies help to control other infectious diseases in the past, before vaccines and antibiotics?  

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