So, 5 y.o. T. rocked his #covid text today. I could not let him face it alone so took this morning off to take him. Which led to an interesting breakfast conversation about #coronavirus:
T: “We need to find the virus. We need special detectives to find who has the virus.”
Me: “We have them. We call them public health doctors.”
T: 😳 “do they drove around in vans with microscopes?”
Me: “Would be cool but no. But they still are super.”
So, to distract him, I tell him this (very much abbreviated) story of Dr. John Snow. No, not THAT Jon Snow — though people yelling “You know nothing, Jon Snow!” in English accents fits nicely into this story, too.
Dr. Snow was a doctor in 1850’s London, before we had discovered germs caused disease. There was a devastating cholera outbreak. He had the idea to trace the cases, using a map and statistics. He traced it to a water pump on Broad Street that was contaminated from a nearby cess pool. He removed the handle. The outbreak eased.
So, was he lauded a hero? Not at all! There was a public outcry denying the existence of contaminated water and the city replaced the pump handle.
You aren’t really surprised that’s how it ended, are you?
Dr. Snow was the first epidemiologist and public health doctor. I’m not sure things have gotten any better for public health doctors. 🤔 How many people do you know who would lobby to have the pump handle re-installed? An event, incidentally, remembered annually by UK society of public health doctors to remind of the unique challenges of public health: populism, misinformation, politics.
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