Epidemics in modern societies are not really new. Until the 1980s, viral diseases such as the so-called childhood diseases were treated with two weeks’ bedrest – but most of them have long since been vaccinated against it, meaning that these “everyday” epidemics have now disappeared from people’s minds. And, not least, the real impacts of the epidemics of the last 20 years, such as mad cow disease, swine fever, bird flu, Ebola, or SARS, have proved to be relatively mild overall compared to the Coronavirus. So from this perspective, have we perhaps even forgotten how to deal with epidemics? Is that another reason why important medical research has not been continued? And where can we place the Corona crisis in the history of epidemics in the Modern era? Historian Prof. Malte Thießen, Director at the LWL Institute for Westphalian Regional History, has conducted research into and published widely on the history of health, healthcare, and vaccination. We asked him for his assessment.
"As recently as the 1960s, infectious diseases were widely present"
L.I.S.A.: Professor Thießen, you have studied the topic of epidemics and vaccination in modern times intensely from a historical perspective and published widely on the subject, most recently as the Ebola virus was spreading during the period 2014-2016. Today, in the wake of the Corona epidemic, the topic of viral epidemics and vaccination is more relevant than ever. You are very familiar with the history of epidemics. Has the outbreak of a new viral epidemic surprised you or was it to be expected? To put it bluntly: Once one epidemic ends, should we just be waiting for the next?
Prof. Thießen: There are always epidemics – that I would certainly agree with. Incidentally, we don’t have to look as far as back the great plagues or the “Spanish flu” of 1918/19 to realise this. Ebola and SARS, but also AIDS/HIV, and above all polio and diphtheria were still claiming several thousand lives in Europe even just a few decades ago. So why, in recent times, do we react with surprise every time – and therefore often too late – to outbreaks of epidemics? Why are epidemics frequently thought to be a dark chapter of long since forgotten times?
The answer, ironically enough, lies with medical progress. Today, we live in an age of immunity and have absorbed the idea that we are safe from infectious diseases. As recently as the 1960s, infectious diseases were widely present even in the everyday lives of Germans. For a long time, “childhood diseases” were not merely a trivialisation, but rather an expression of the omnipresence of epidemics with many victims, particularly among the youngest. Since then, programmes for systematic prevention and vaccination have thankfully meant we are largely immune to epidemics. In a nutshell: We are, in a sense, victims of our medical successes, which lull us into a false sense of security.