The Black Death and the Coronavirus: Lessons from the 14th Century

Responses to the Black Death in the 14th Century make today's responses to COVID-19 seem tepid. In his riveting history, The Black Death, historian Philip Ziegler reports instances of homes of the sick being walled off, leaving the inhabitants to die inside. Bodies by the dozens, even hundreds, were buried in shallow graves, only to be dug up and spread around by wild animals.