I heard so many complaints today about having to quarantine wear a mask and even about social distancing; I’m going to give you a quick history lesson. If I had to share one thing its that this is not the first time quarantine has been used and it won’t be the last.

Quarantine has been in use since it was first implimented in 1377 in Croatia. It has become the most basic and effective response to disease control as it includes strategies like isolation, sanitation, bills of health, and regulating groups responsible for spreading the disease.

It’s first implementation was done through the use of separating the sick into makeshift camps. During this time those that were found to be sick had to quarantine for 40 DAYS. Though the reason for the length is unknown our 14 day quarantine pales in comparison to that.

The next steps included creating bills of health that would allow for ships to be identified as coming from either a plague infected country or country deemed sanitary. If the ship came from a known plague source the captain was taken off ship and interviewed.

This interview was done through socially distant measures that came about from a hypothesis of “dirty air” (though the idea of dirty air was proven wrong it still helped contribute to quarantining) but nevertheless it worked and social distancing has still been used to this day.

Later in 1688 and 1691 when yellow fever hit North America quarantine was brought back. This time people found to be sick were quarantined in homes instead of camps. During the cholera epidemic in the 1830’s anyone that may have come in contact with someone sick was quarantined.

Though quarantine didn’t quite work in for Cholera and Yellow Fever it still had its uses so in 1903 the 11th Sanitary Conference adopter 184 articles about how to better use quarantine. Finally when Influenza hit the first time in 1918 ideas of quarantine were put in place.

Because a war was being fought it was up to army medical officers to look for signs. And when they were found soldiers were isolated from others to stop the spread. At the same time most of the Western world began to close down schools, theaters and cancelled sporting events.

Physicians also started to recommend social distancing. An example of failure of quick response was seen in Italy where the decision to shut down schools was delayed and the country ended up with one of the highest death rates.

One interesting thing to note is the fact that through out quarantines’s evolution there has been riots and protest against its use. During the cholera outbreak ideas of freedom sparking from the revolutions of the 1700’s caused people to see quarantine as a way to silence them.

My whole point of this thread is to say that the idea of quarantine has been around for centuries. It has been tested, redesigned and perfected to help contain a disease and not let it spread or kill if the rules of quarantine are followed. This idea is not new.

It is not the first time it has been put to use and it won’t be the last time it will be put to use. Instead of blaming each other and the CDC or the WHO for using “scare tactics” to make us stay inside look at quarantine from a historical perspective and see its long history.