Information is transparent, factual and provides public awareness. Because infectious diseases have an additional sociological dimension than ordinary diseases: they cannot be contained by purely medical efforts; they test the entire social coping system.

This is a huge subject, and historically outbreaks have generally occurred for several reasons:

1, war: the army and barracks is often the worst hit by epidemics, war will lead to endemic epidemics, mobile army is a mobile big germs (typhoid epidemic in China in ancient times), in addition to modern battles is often used bacteriological warfare (Japanese invasion of China bacteriological warfare), the plague has become a weapon of war.

2. Geography and climate change.

3. Natural calamities, accompanied by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and famines, must result in pandemics.

4. Merchants, missionaries, messengers and tourists in the ancient world promoted cultural exchanges and economic trade in various regions, but also led to large-scale epidemics, the Black Death being a typical example.

5. Folk customs and eating habits (eating wild animals).

In terms of the causes of the epidemic, we have learned our lessons, and the first four points are currently doing OK. The only thing we have to mention is that eating wild animals is a lesson from history that has never been learned. From time immemorial, many large-scale infectious diseases have been caused by animals and spread from animals to human beings. the outbreak of Hepatitis A in Shanghai in 1988 was caused by the customary consumption of arkshells in Qidong, resulting in an outbreak in which the number of infected persons exceeded 300 000, which was undoubtedly a rare mega public health incident. As to whether the SARS incident was caused by indiscriminate eating of wild animals (eating civet), I doubt it.

The message given to us at the source is to take precautions, especially by abstaining from wild animals.

The way ancient societies dealt with the plague:

1、隔离（驱逐出村、或安置远离乡镇的郊外空屋，比如对付麻风的方法是隔离，早期是将患者驱逐出境（乡镇），近代以来是建立麻风病院，将患者集中在规定地区疗养，禁止与外人接触；急性和大规模传染病突发时采取强制性封户或者封城，阻断传染病的传播与扩散，比如1911年东北 Plague occurred in 1911 in the northeast, Wulinde is to cut off the train from the northeast into the Shanhaiguan, the epidemic will first be controlled in the northeast, to prevent the spread of the epidemic to Guannei; in 1665, England's Derbyshire town of Eyam (Eyam) outbreak of the bubonic plague, the residents of the town to take the initiative to seal off the town, do not allow people to come in from the outside, and do not allow people to go out of the inside in order to interrupt the outflow of the plague, the whole village of more than 350 people 260 The village of more than 350 people died of the plague, which is known to historians as the "village of the plague" villagers to self-sacrifice feat, so that the nearby areas of the epidemic is under control, the residents of neighboring villages to get a chance to live; but also infected patients and families at home to self-enclosure; or the establishment of a special hospital for the plague, centralized reception of infected patients, specialized treatment, and isolation of patients with the hospital. other patients in isolation.) , burning of bodies.

2. Make lifestyle changes, such as starting to shower and wash your hands;

3. Modern society has invented the use of communal chopsticks and the wearing of masks;

4. Adjustment of socialization during outbreaks, curfew, self-containment at home.

5, the development of new rules of trade, such as port quarantine, quarantine of goods and foreign personnel, Venice in 1374, the first to promulgate regulations, stipulating that all merchants in and out of Venice, if infected or suspected of being infected merchants will not be allowed to enter the city, and other Italian cities followed the same example. 1377, the Republic of Ragusa, the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, the first to stipulate that all suspected of being infected with the bubonic plague, must be In the distance from the city and the seaport of a considerable distance from the designated places, at the same time is in the fresh air and sunny environment to stay to 30 days before being allowed to enter the country, and later extended to 40 days, known as Lent (Quarantenaria), that is, today's seaport quarantine. 1383, Marseille, France, the official establishment of seaport quarantine station.

Ancient Chinese dynasties basically no special measures, "in case of disease, not only the people seek medical treatment, defend themselves, the local government must be on behalf of the plan, so that the people of the same territory with the Shouwu and has been. More than China's medical set up a bureau, let people do as they please, come to listen to, do not come to do not force different". Once the epidemic broke out, the "Imperial Doctor" would be sent to the place to observe and ask the local government to deal with it on behalf of the local government, which would set up "Biefang", "Nourishing Disease Place" and "Tropical Man Place". The local government would set up "Bie Fang", "Zai Diao Fang" and "Tropical Man Fang" to receive patients, or "for those who are suffering from diseases, they would give up their residences and houses and set up medicines here", mostly relying on the civil power or religious organizations to set up temporary hospitals to receive and treat patients. In modern Shanghai, once there was an epidemic, the local government and civil organizations would jointly set up a "hospital for the epidemic".

Of course there were many other contributions to epidemic prevention in ancient China, such as vaccinations, and the persistent outbreaks of smallpox throughout history, which resulted in far more overall deaths than the bubonic plague, with a mortality rate as high as 25%. Since the Song Dynasty, Chinese society has adopted the human pox vaccination method to prevent smallpox, other Asian countries and Arab doctors will also this method, around the 18th century, the human pox vaccination method to Europe, 1796 British human pox inoculator Jenner invented cowpox inoculation, which became an effective against smallpox harmless vaccine, but at that time, people did not fully realize the role of this vaccine and the great significance of the British parliamentary legislation mandatory implementation of vaccination Vaccination. The method of vaccination effectively prevented and controlled the outbreaks of many infectious diseases, such as typhus and diphtheria, which jeopardized the society and the population before the 20th century.

The anti-epidemic revelations are synthesized as follows:

1. The outbreak of the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century was followed by two important measures that have been used to this day and have been effective in controlling the disease: 1) the official establishment of a seaport quarantine station in Marseilles, France, in 1383; and 2) the establishment of a government committee to supervise and direct the collection of corpses, funerals, the guarding of foreign ships, quarantine, and reporting of the disease.

2. Health legislation and the establishment of quarantine sites and reception facilities to isolate epidemics and rescue patients.

3. National health mobilization and public health literacy: hygiene posters (now promoted on the Internet), prevention guidebooks (hand-washing, masks, public chopsticks, disinfection, etc.).

4. The rise of prophylaxis and health statistics. 5. Targeted anti-epidemic prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine and modern targeted vaccines.

5, each outbreak, accompanied by another hidden plague: rumors, rumors and superstitions, non-scientific so-called folk remedies, the spread of these social epidemics, the spread of its faster, infected people faster, the harm is not necessarily weaker than the biological epidemics, or even more than that, more likely to cause social panic; therefore, an important measure to prevent and control epidemics is the transparency of information, popularization of scientific knowledge and timely guidance on prevention and treatment methods. Therefore, an important measure to combat the epidemic is information transparency, popularization of scientific knowledge and timely guidance on prevention and control methods.

In short, plagues can be devastating to human societies and have led to reflections on the value of life, inspired medical scientists to explore the causes of disease, and given rise to new types of disciplines, such as bacteriology, the rise of the concept of epidemiology, the widespread use of statistical methods of investigation, the emergence of population censuses and disease profiles. From cholera came the control of water resources and the supervision and management of water quality, and the sociological orientation of disease research. The role played by plague at major turning points in human history can be found in the previous answer. It is worth adding that the SARS incident not only promoted the reform and improvement of China's public health prevention and response mechanism, but also pushed the study of the history of medicine, the history of public health, and the social history of medicine from a hidden field of study to the forefront of academic research, becoming an explicit discipline that has increasingly attracted the attention of historians, sociologists, and anthropologists, and opened up a new field of historiographical research.

First the historical plague. There was no bacterial microbiology then. In other words, the people did not know that the plague was caused by microorganisms. Chinese medicine categorizes all such infectious diseases as plague. So what is it? Is it a poison? Literature on the book was first put. In fact it has been made clear that the plague referred to at that time was primarily a respiratory infection. And now there are also digestive infections, infectious diseases transmitted by other means are also put in the plague. So the plague of modern medicine is a much wider range of infectious diseases than the ancient literature.

The number of epidemics in China's history is countless, and all of them are gradually increasing as the years draw nearer. In Deng Tuo, "China's history of disaster relief" book, there are counted the number of epidemics in China throughout the ages: according to incomplete statistics, the number of epidemics in China throughout the ages: the Zhou Dynasty, the Qin and Han Dynasty thirteen times, the Wei and Jin Dynasties seventeen times, the Sui and Tang Dynasties seventeen times, the two Sung Dynasty thirty-two times, the Yuan Dynasty twenty times, sixty-four times in the Ming Dynasty, seventy-four times in the Qing Dynasty.

During thousands of years of battling epidemics, the Chinese people have naturally summarized a number of experiences and response plans, many of which are still in use today.

First of all, as to the timing of the epidemic prone to occur, the ancient people of China have long been summarized and predicted.

People have long since discovered that epidemics are often accompanied by other disasters: in the Sui Dynasty, in the eighth year of the Daye era (612), there was a great drought in the world, followed by a pandemic; in the eighth year of the Song Dynasty's Qingli era (1048), there was a great flood in Hebei, followed by an epidemic in March of the following year; in the Yuan Dynasty's Zhishun era (1331), there were successive years of drought in the Hengzhou area, followed by epidemics, and "the dead nineteen ".........

Secondly, prevention is much more effective than cure for sudden outbreaks.

So how do you prevent an epidemic? A very important part of this is to find things that are associated with an outbreak.

For a long time in earlier times, epidemics were explained by attributing them to the plague gods! Later, however, as the level of cognition grew, people began to realize the relationship between the occurrence of epidemics and public health.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhen Dexiu served in Quanzhou, he realized that this place is often infected with disease in spring and autumn, and Quanzhou city ditches blocked for a long time, and decided to clean up the ditches.

..............

Of course, cutting off the path and source of infection is the most important thing for a spreading epidemic.

As early as the pre-Qin Dynasty, people knew to cut off the epidemic transmission by disposing of corpses. In later times, in the event of a pandemic, the government generally have the practice of burying the bodies of the dead. Southern Liang Wu Di, Ying city epidemic, the city more than ten into the mouth of the dead 178! The court ordered the dead to give coffins to give coffins, in order to prevent the epidemic from spreading. Song Dynasty, the official will be in the epidemic after recruiting monks to bury the body, to the ultimatum as a reward.

And for those who are still alive, as early as the Book of Han, there are records of quarantine measures for the sick.

It is clear that people at the time were already taking the contagiousness of epidemics seriously.

In the Jin Dynasty, isolation of infectious patients had become institutionalized. During the Qi Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, a specialized patient isolation institution, the Six Diseases Hall, was established. In the Tang Dynasty, a beggar's sick house was opened by monks to isolate and treat the sick.

Beginning in the Song Dynasty, there were a large number of government-run institutions for the sick, all of which served to isolate the sick. Su Shi set up the "An Le Fang" in Hangzhou, which was precisely an institution for the sick.

Since then, in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the official medical institutions, except for the Pharmacy Bureau, have gradually shrunk. However, due to the proliferation of private charitable organizations, the control of epidemics was still more effective.

Man's struggle against plague is the worst war on earth. The Black Death in Europe took the lives of nearly 200 million people; the Spanish flu took 50 million people out of this world. The plague, which has caused incalculable losses to mankind.

But mankind did not surrender and stop resisting.

"The latter should not forget the lessons of the former." Looking at these plagues that occurred in history, what lessons do they teach us today?

First, scientific response. Anything that happens has its cause, process and result, and so does the plague. In the past, people are limited to cognitive short-sightedness, insufficient knowledge of the plague, can not find a scientific response, which is the limitations of the times. This is not the case now. Let us take this new case of Crown Pneumonia as an example. After the outbreak of the epidemic, our scientists quickly determined that the outbreak of the epidemic in China was at the South China Seafood Market in Wuhan, and that the intermediate host was the Chinese chrysanthemum head amplitude, and put forward scientific recommendations. The government responded scientifically by sealing off the city, banning foot traffic, and cutting off the source of infection, preventing the outbreak from spreading in the first place. The "collective immunization" adopted by certain countries is an irresponsible and unscientific approach that treats life as a child's play.

Second, technological attack. The reason why so many people died in the plague in history is inseparable from the backward sanitary and medical conditions, but mankind has been exploring and advancing. When smallpox raged in Europe, nearly 150 million people died worldwide. Scientists were not intimidated, but worked day and night to overcome the challenge. 1796 British doctor Edward invented the "cowpox inoculation" method, and in 1979 the WHO declared the eradication of smallpox. In 1979, the WHO declared the eradication of smallpox. When the new coronary pneumonia occurred, our scientists became the most beautiful "retrograde", rushed to the scene at the first time, explored the source of the disease, analyzed the pathology, and put forward a combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment methods, which greatly reduced the mortality rate.

Thirdly, we are in the same boat. Epidemics are relentless and borderless. In the face of an epidemic, people all over the world should be united, united as one and in the same boat. After the outbreak of Xinguancunpneumonia, we responded to the government's call for support from all sides in times of trouble, with more than 40,000 medical and nursing staff supporting Wuhan and a large amount of medical supplies being shipped to Hubei. The people obeyed and stayed at home. In just two months, a decisive victory was achieved in the fight against the epidemic. Wuhan's decision to restore access to the city from zero hour on April 8 was the result of the nation's common struggle.

The virus is unknown, but human exploration is endless, and mankind will eventually overcome the virus to achieve final victory.

In the thousands of years of civilization of the Chinese nation, there have been countless large-scale infectious diseases, also known as plagues, including cholera, smallpox, bubonic plague and so on. According to our historical records, over 2,000 years since the Western Han Dynasty, more than 300 large-scale epidemics of plague have occurred in ancient China, with outbreaks often occurring every few years or decades. Thus, as a country that has suffered from plagues, China has accumulated a wealth of experience in dealing with them and has learned many lessons. Many dynasties have formulated policies and regulations to deal with possible plague outbreaks. Thanks to these inspirations, epidemics in modern times have also been controlled significantly and effectively.

(Figure from the Internet)

First of all, in ancient times, the control of this plague mainly took two ways, one is the drug treatment, every big epidemic of plague, will greatly promote the research and development of Chinese medicine drugs, it is because of this step-by-step development, in response to the new coronary pneumonia, Chinese medicine has also achieved remarkable results.

State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Clinical evidence shows that the total effective rate of traditional Chinese medicine on new coronary pneumonia reaches more than 90 percent

The second way is to isolate the source of infection. According to historical records, isolation of patients has been used since the Han Dynasty to control the spread of large-scale plagues. In the Qing Dynasty, the palace was specially set up to isolate people infected with smallpox. However, due to the limitations of productivity at that time, the efficiency of controlling and isolating many plagues was not very high, thus many times leading to a large number of infections and deaths of the people. However, the thinking of the old ancestors was still very correct, and taking control from the source of infection was indeed a very effective method. It is also because of this experience that the government decisively adopted the measure of closing Wuhan in response to the Xin Guan epidemic, and all places responded positively by closing roads and neighborhoods and villages, cutting off the large-scale flow of infectious agents, thus avoiding larger outbreaks, and thus saving the lives and health of many people.

Zhongnannan: If control is delayed by 5 days, the outbreak is expected to triple in size.

(Figure from the Internet)

At the end of the day, outbreaks can't be predicted, but they can be reduced in frequency, that isLess wild game! Eat less game! Less game! Say it three times.Although it has now been determined that the South China Seafood Market is not the source of the infection, this virus did flow into human society from the wild environment, so regardless of which country's people are infected, the enemy of all mankind is the virus, and what is endangered is also the life and health of all mankind and the economic development, which is the greatest revelation for all mankind to defend themselves against the plague. After all, if there is no plague, then there is no way to talk about defense against it.

As a Chinese living in a country with thousands of years of history and heritage, I am still incredibly proud of my heart, after all, after all the trials and tribulations, the birth of a country full of countlessExperience andWisdom of the Chinese people. Each suffering makes us stronger and more united.

The Chinese have never been afraid of difficulties, not from the beginning.

China has written records of the Great Plague more than 500 times, the world can be divided by the number of deaths: First, the European Black Death in the Middle Ages, the number of deaths in the world is about 75 million people; Second, the Great Plague in the Americas, the number of deaths is about 30 million people, the Indians are almost extinct (the Europeans intentionally introduced the smallpox virus into the Americas); Third, the bubonic plague in the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number of deaths is about 10 million people, the army loss of The plague in the late Ming Dynasty killed about 10 million people, and the army lost its ability to fight, which accelerated the fall of the Ming Dynasty; four, the Spanish influenza, which killed nearly 40 million people around the world.

These were some of the most tragic plagues in the world. In ancient times, science and technology were not developed, but mankind had accumulated many methods of resisting plague contagion while fighting these plagues.

1. Official doctors were sent to treat the people free of charge, as we have seen in the TV series "The Legend of the Female Doctor Ming Fei", in which the emperor sends imperial doctors to the people to consult them personally. The Ming Dynasty also made "small drinks for epidemic relief" and distributed them to the people.

2. Official disposal of corpses, ancient plague outbreaks were often preceded by great droughts and floods, causing great famines. Countless people died of starvation, and the decaying corpses would cause further contagion. Officials sent people to bury the corpses, on the one hand, to avoid contagion, and on the other hand, it is also a kind of comfort to the people.

3, the implementation of isolation policy, the Western Han government vacated part of the house focused on the treatment of patients, this behavior in the Qin dynasty has been legislation, the Han dynasty carried on the inheritance. For example, in the Sleeping Tiger Earth Qin Tomb Bamboo Slip" to see the Qin Dynasty has been on the plague legislation, the requirements do not contact with the patient, do not eat with the patient, informed immediately reported, which is the earliest recorded legislation.

4, to establish a national awareness of epidemic prevention, such as in the waxing moon at the end of the year to focus on cleaning, folk have waxing moon 24 sweeping the house said, Dragon Boat Festival drinking xionghuang wine, hanging ai leaves.

These measures are still relevant today in our fight against neo-coronaviruses, although of course modern society is more technologically advanced and we are more confident of eradicating neo-coronaviruses.

In the long course of history, of course, the plague will not stop the process of civilization; it will only continue to improve the physical condition of human beings and enhance their immunity. However, this is not a reason for us to let go when we really face the reality of epidemics; the sacrifice and cost of mass immunization is something that no country and no government can afford.

And the great plagues of history have required someone to pay the bill, and the person who pays the bill is either a government, or a nation, or even a race. So we should be grateful for what the Chinese government has done in this epidemic.

Looking back at the historical experience of the fight against the epidemic at home and abroad, at least the following three lessons can be drawn that are worth learning.

First of all, it is necessary to correctly understand the plague on the basis of and accurate prevention. The terrible plague is sudden and contagious, but the plague is also a phase of the epidemic, it has its generation, rampant, the process of extinction, a single epidemic a few months to a few years after the gradual demise of the demise of the time of the sooner or later decided to human beings whether to take appropriate protective measures. For example, quarantine measures have long been recognized as effective in China and abroad, and the city closure and quarantine adopted in the current domestic Xin Guan fight against the epidemic has proved to be scientifically effective. But why is Wuhan alone the most serious epidemic? Even the Terminal Nanshan all admitted: if the early closure of the city for five days can be reduced by one-third of the diagnosis, that is still a little slow, the closure of the city than the new crown of the raging period of a few days late. In contrast, some foreign countries did not decisively isolate the source of infection and close the city early, resulting in the widespread spread of the virus during the raging period, and the outbreak was not effectively controlled.

Secondly, it is necessary for all mankind to explore the establishment of a plague prevention system for long-term protection and rapid emergency response, including advanced bacterial research and rapid response mechanisms. Various plague virus is also the process of bacterial evolution and development, in the face of new viruses and sudden outbreaks, medical research and public health protection system often seems to be lagging behind or incompetent, why human beings are always passive and hasty to respond to the war and pay a small price? The author believes that the main or negligence of defense to let the spread of the virus have the opportunity to take advantage of. If mankind's research and understanding of various bacteria can be ahead of the proliferation, kill harmful bacteria in the bud, it will be able to avoid large-scale epidemics; and secondly, if the whole society's rapid response mechanism can be routinized, institutionalized, then even if the plague in a small range of proliferation, the negative impact can be reduced to a minimum.

One more point on the origins of the great plagues of ancient and modern times, the mainstream research analysis is originated from wild animals, but what are the causes of wild animal disease induced? Few people have thought about this. Some research suggests that the subtle changes in the earth's climate and the destruction of the natural ecological balance by human activities may be the source of all plague outbreaks, and that wild animals and human beings are only intermediate links and victims. According to the scientific method of analysis, all things in the world are universally connected and closely related and are constantly evolving, so it is necessary for the vision of human epidemiological prevention to be directed to a broader and deeper level of natural environmental protection and the new field of special climatic influences on human life.

The London Plague in the 17th Century

Since mankind entered modern society, the spread of large-scale plagues has been more of a persistent problem brought about by the capital-aggregation effect known as "urbanization". Among them, in the 17th century, the industrial and commercial center of England at that time - London is the most significant. And there were periodic outbreaks.

In less than a century, London, then the economic center of England, had six large-scale outbreaks of plague, almost one every ten years. In 1665, the number of people who died of plague in London was as high as 55,797, with a total mortality rate of 17.6%. The important reason for the frequent occurrence of plague in London was related to the underdeveloped medical conditions at that time; more importantly, it was also related to the enclosure movement and the price revolution in Britain at that time, which led to the gathering of the rural population to the city.

The concentration of large numbers of people and the increase in the number of urban migrants, while promoting the development of capitalist industry and commerce in the city, also brought enormous public health pressures to the city. The poor, especially at the bottom of London's social ladder, were subjected to poor living conditions, high-density congregations, and long periods of closed and damp working conditions. These conditions made it extremely easy for the plague to spread on a large scale.

In addition, England was a highly stratified country, with London being the most important: the rich areas of the City of London had better health care, better living conditions and more spacious and brighter living conditions. However, the opposite was true in the poorer neighborhoods, where income, food and drink were poor and life was already very difficult. In addition, they are densely populated and have poor living conditions. So they are often the hardest hit areas in the city. In the slums on both sides of the Thames, in addition to the filthy shacks, environmentally destructive factories and pig farms full of slop, there are mountains of garbage left. Even with such poor living conditions, residents on both sides of the Thames had to struggle to pay for their daily expenses, with much of their income going to pay rent.

The ghettos of England had been described in detail in Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England:

These houses, each with only three or four rooms and a kitchen, are called small mansions, and throughout England (except in certain parts of London) these are ordinary workmen's dwellings. The streets here are usually unpaved, dirty, potholed, littered with garbage, and there are no drains or sewers, but only stinking stagnant puddles. The irrationally haphazard form of construction in these areas of the city prevents the circulation of air, and since many people live in this one modest space, it is easy to imagine what the air is like in these workers' quarters.

......

Here, too, houses were filled from basement to attic with poor families. In St. John's and St. Margaret's parishes in Westminster, according to the Journal of the Statistical Society, in 1840, 5,366 working families lived in 5,294 dwellings (if they could even be called "dwellings"); men, women, and children, a total of 26,830, of all sexes and all ages, were crowded together, and three-fourths of these families had only one room in the house. Three-fourths of these families had only one room. In St. George's, the noble parish of Hanover Square, according to the same material, there are 1,465 families of workmen, with a total of nearly 6,000 persons, living under the same conditions; more than two thirds of them have no more than one room each.

......

These houses were truly stuffed with people. Three or four families live on each floor, sometimes as many as 20, and sometimes the whole of each floor is rented out as a night-club, and in one room, instead of being said to be planted, there are literally from 15 to 20 people crammed in. These districts are the hiding-places of the poorest, most depraved, and morally corrupt portion of the inhabitants, and they ought to be looked upon as the fountain-heads of those dreadful and fatal epidemical fevers, which have spread from here throughout Glasgow.

And in the years before Engels, it was clear that the condition of English workers was not much better. And in order to alleviate the pressure on public health in England at that time, the British government, in 1580, issued a ban on the construction of new houses, of course, this decree was only for the shacks in the poor neighborhoods, except for the houses in the rich neighborhoods. Although the British government repeatedly reiterated the ban in 1593, 1607 and 1625. However, with the rapid development of capitalist industry and commerce, the process of urbanization deepened, when more and more people from outside the country flocked to the city, this decree not only did not help to alleviate the problem at that time, but also further deteriorated the living environment of the lower class. Most people had to divide their houses into smaller and less airtight compartments without building new ones. At the same time, many people secretly built poorly constructed simple brick houses in the courtyards of old houses or in the old neighborhoods, which lacked sewage and sufficient light. In 1665, the number of deaths from the plague in the district of Vitfries (the poor) and St. Stanislaus (the rich) was about 3:1, and because the poor suffered more than the rich, the plague was called the "poor man's plague."

And at the time of the Great Plague of 1665, the Royal College of Physicians produced a "Guide to the Prevention and Control of the Plague," with the words "For the Poor" written specifically on the front cover. However, the medical conditions of the time also made it impossible to come up with effective methods of combating the plague, and the main recommendation made by the Royal College of Physicians at the time was to light fires. They advised the public to burn ginger, rosemary, roses and essential oils crushed in small pots. They believed that this method would get rid of the miasma and would disperse fleas and rats from the house. every neighborhood in London in 1625 was lit on fire and smoked about two to three times a week. A number of doctors, churchwardens and magistrates who were responsible for enforcing the quarantine were also involved in the whole process of combating the plague with a sense of duty.

One notable example is Simon Furman. He was adamant about staying in London when the plague broke out and said, "I will stay and save those who are infected, even if I die as a result." Instead, this esteemed doctor and his family later contracted the plague.

But many noblemen, judges, councillors and some doctors, clergymen and ordinary citizens fled the city. During the outbreak of the plague, the rich districts of the city were empty, the factories were shut down, the markets were deserted, and the graveyards were filled with the stinking corpses of the poor, all of which the grave diggers could not bury within 24 hours even if they worked around the clock. With the exception of a handful of specialized doctors and clergy, the majority of those who remained in the city were the poor, unemployed craftsmen, apprentices, and the dismissed domestic servants of the rich.

Elsewhere in England, the worsening of the epidemic also made everyone in nearby towns and cities fear for their lives, and the surrounding towns and cities began to blockade the infected areas, closing the roads and gates of their towns and gates, posting guards with guns, refusing to accept ordinary refugees from London, and even stoning to drive them away. Even when a dying Londoner crawled into a farm hut, the locals were so frightened that they dug a huge hole and buried the dying patient along with the house.