Examines America's experience with a wide range of quarantine practices over the past 400 years and the political, economic, immigration, and public health considerations that have prompted success or failure within the evolving role of public health.
The novel strain of coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 and became a worldwide pandemic in 2020 is only one of more than 87 new or emerging pathogens discovered since 1980 that have posed a risk to public health. While many may consider quarantine an antiquated practice, it is often one of the only defenses against new and dangerous communicable diseases. Tracing the United States' quarantine practices through the colonial, postcolonial, and modern eras, Germs at Bay provides an eye-opening look at how quarantine has worked despite routine dismissal of its value.
This book is for anyone seeking to understand the challenges of controlling the spread of COVID-19 and helps readers internalize the lessons learned from the pandemic. Few titles provide this level of primary source data on the United States' long reliance on quarantine practices and the political, social, and economic factors that have influenced them.
By:
Charles Vidich (Independent Scholar USA)
Imprint: Praeger Publishers Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 992g
ISBN: 9781440878336
ISBN 10: 1440878331
Pages: 520
Publication Date: 19 January 2021
Recommended Age: From 7 to 17 years
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 The Quarantine Grab Bag Chapter 2 Quarantine through the Generations: Five Stages of Practice Chapter 3 Quarantine in the Colony Chapter 4 The Inoculation Controversy Chapter 5 Branding the Outcasts: Warning Out and Red Flags Chapter 6 Large-Scale Sequestration Chapter 7 The Revolutionary War and Its Aftermath: A New Perspective Chapter 8 Yellow Fever and the Emergence of Boards of Health Chapter 9 Boston Board of Health Chapter 10 Vaccination Chapter 11 Yellow Fever Outbreak of 1819 and the Excesses of Quarantine Chapter 12 Miasma Theory, Maritime Commerce, and Quarantine Restraints Chapter 13 Deer Island Quarantine Station Chapter 14 Cholera Contagion and the Resurrection of Quarantine Chapter 15 Gallop's Island Chapter 16 The Evolution of the Cowpox Vaccine Chapter 17 The Smallpox Epidemic of 1872 Chapter 18 Germ Theory Reframes Quarantine Chapter 19 Federal Solutions to Quarantine Chapter 20 Boston's Last Epidemics Chapter 21 The End of Boston's Maritime Quarantine Department Chapter 22 Quarantine under U.S. Public Health Service Chapter 23 Redefining Quarantine for the Twenty-First Century Appendix A: Chronology of Key American Quarantine Events, 1647–2020 Appendix B: Chronology of Nineteenth-Century Boston Quarantine Ordinances, 1822–1873 Appendix C: History of Boston's Port Physicians, 1779–1915 Appendix D: Quarantine Decision Tree Glossary About Sources Notes Index
Charles Vidich is a consultant and adviser on public health and bioterrorism issues and was appointed a visiting scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, working for 10 years on national quarantine policy.
Reviews for Germs at Bay: Politics, Public Health, and American Quarantine
Germs at Bay is a great book if you are interested in the how and why of quarantines like those at Boston Harbor or New York's Ellis Island, or the current recommendations to keep COVID [from] further spread. * The History of Vaccines Blog *
