Coronavirus has sent the world into complete shock and unknown territory. Governmental and country lockdowns are sending global economies into turmoil and people into panics and frenzies. Protests are breaking out across America, arguing that quarantine violates our basic rights. China is being hit with a second wave of the disease as death rates rise again. Although no one has lived through an event like this before, we are able to analyze the conclusions and lessons that resulted from past pandemics and use this knowledge to effectively understand how to deal with disease outbreaks and the current Coronavirus pandemic.   

  The origin of quarantine came about in 1347, from the most fatal pandemic in human history, the Black Death. After claiming 200 million lives in just four years, the disease had completely overtaken Europe and officials were able to conclude that the spread was the result of proximity. Officials in Venetian ports ordered sailors to stay on their ships until they proved they were not sick. The term quarantino refers to forty or more days in isolation. This was both the origin of the word and the start of its practice in Europe. 

  Londoners continuously suffered from the plague as it continued to resurface every few years and wipe out 20% of the population each time. Similar to quarantine, the sick were locked in their houses, and the dead were buried in mass graves. If a person living with the infected had to go outside, they were required to carry a white pole so everyone knew to keep their distance. This was a more targeted method of quarantine, aimed primarily at the sick. While all public entertainment was canceled, it was just the infected who were required to stay in their homes by law. 

  With the first European explorers in the 15th century came a pandemic, unlike any disease the New World had ever seen. Smallpox caused the complete devastation of Native populations, resulting in 90-95% of the population being killed in a little over a century. The immune systems of the Native people were not previously exposed to European germs or allowed to build a tolerance, so the disease hit extra hard and caused extensive mortalities. Centuries later, smallpox was completely eliminated from Earth due to a vaccine being developed in the late 18th century. The World Health Organization declared it completely eradicated in 1980. 

  Each pandemic carries different issues and solutions. However, knowing how diseases in the past have been eliminated is extremely important for eventually reaching a controlled level of Coronavirus. Quarantine is offering protection from the potential of becoming dangerously, and possibly deathly, ill. While it is a major inconvenience to the normalcy of our society, it is a necessity to stop the spreading of this disease. The eventual development of a vaccine will also prevent another outbreak that will send the world spiraling once more.