We're more civilised now

The benefits of modern medicine have led people to demand more from the State, and to value every life. Even a modest death toll caused by an epidemic today is unacceptable

Look at the bright side. If isolated attacks in Indore on health workers enforcing quarantine has gained so much publicity it only shows how civilised we have gradually become. In Russia, Britain and Germany, right upto the 1830s, massive cholera riots broke out which would put Indore’s prickly little one-day flare up to shame. In those days doctors too were beaten up, governments and kingdoms shook, all kinds of rumours were rife, including the poisoning of wells for devious reasons of power. In the 14th century, Jews were rounded up and killed as suspected agents of epidemics. Compared to such