Notes from central Taiwan: The rhymes of history
Looking back at plagues of the past and examining present parallels
By Michael Turton
And so, every afternoon, we gather round the Internet to hear the latest numbers on the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, a nation united, briefly, and then to speculate, like Greeks before Delphi, on the meaning of the latest oracle.
Samuel Pepys, recording his experience of the plague in England in the summer 1665, still speaks to this moment … “an unpleasing thing to be at Court, everybody being fearful one of another, and all so sad, enquiring after the plague.”