Here's a little thread on crappy public responses to pandemics of the past. Whenever you feel angry about the behaviour of your fellow man, remember, all this has happened before, and all this will happen again - history offers comfort. None of this is new. Enjoy.
1918 Influenza pandemic. Image
Image
1885 Smallpox Pandemic (vaccinia vaccine) Image
1801 "La Dindonnade" - a word meaning 'turkey' and 'hoax' - the smallpox vaccine originally was taken from cowpox pustules on cows. No one believed it worked, some believed they would turn into cows. Image
1885 Excerpt from an antivaxxer pamphlet re Smallpox (one of the most successful vaccination strategies in the world, given we don't get smallpox now) Image
1802 Antivaxxer caricature of vaccinated men and women growing cow parts. (Gillray). Image
1885, antivaccination poster, Montreal, saying all the same things they say now (like sticking the boot into medics for imaginary kickbacks). Image
There are hundreds more like this. I haven't done the Chinese ephemera because I don't have the language to search for it, but if any of my Chinese colleagues could, I'd be delighted. The Chinese were hundreds of years ahead of us on variolation/vaccination.
But take heart everyone. All the arguments you see being made today have been made before. And we've prevailed through pandemics and epidemics before, and we will again. Keep speaking your truth. 🙏

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Dr Kate Miller ⚛️ @drkatemiller.bsky.social

Dr Kate Miller ⚛️ @drkatemiller.bsky.social Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DrKate_Miller

Dec 26, 2022
I had a great chat with @MyaCubitt this morning and the word excellence in the context of healthcare came up. Since becoming a patient myself, this word has changed in meaning entirely for me. As a doctor I found the word utterly intimidating... 1/
Excellence to me meant big and impressive. It meant straight As. Prizes. Dux of something. Harvard. Perfection. Everyone lauding your perfect knowledge. But that is not what it is at all.
As a patient, I want to feel safe more than anything. And to feel safe, I need anyone looking after me to be polite and professional, and to know their job so well that it is routine for them, so they can be calm while they are doing it.
Read 6 tweets
Nov 4, 2022
My school kiddo came home from school really worried a couple of weeks back. An older kid with unfettered Youtube access had watched a video that said the government was going to kill all schoolchildren. Some thoughts. 1/
Firstly, I take a harm minimisation approach with devices. I'm internet-savvy, I have a background in it before changing careers to medicine so this comes with a small degree of confidence (and a bit of terror). Outright banning devices does not educate kids.
After some reassurance, it was a good discussion on "how do we know if what we see is real?" We talked about how there are some really bad people out there who like to cause harm and chaos for no other reason than they're just bad.
Read 12 tweets
Jul 15, 2022
"I'm a geriatrician - do you know what that is?"
This is the first question I often ask of my patients, and the answer is often no.
"I didn't think geriatricians would have much work during the pandemic...what is it that you do again?"

A thread on what a geriatrician does! 🧵
A geriatrician is a non-GP specialist doctor that looks after multiple diseases, syndromes, and situations that occur more often in older age (usually over 65 around these parts, over 70 in others).
The diseases we treat are usually in combination with other diseases/problems. Diseases such as dementia, osteoporosis, heart failure, Parkinsons, diabetes, strokes - that on their own you could see a specialist just in that disease for, but in combination with each other?
Read 22 tweets
Jul 3, 2022
Kindess is not free.

A thread. 🧵
I used to be that person that said kindness costs nothing. And in day-to-day life, it's probably true. It costs you nothing to be kind to the shop assistant, wait staff, post office staff, especially when they are polite too. But as a health care worker?
Every day we meet new people. New patients, their families, other healthcare workers due to the transient shiftwork nature of the job. It costs nothing to be kind - initially. We meet thousands of new people a year.
Read 17 tweets
May 30, 2022
One comment I will make about the persistent rate of covid deaths, is that a) they are in addition to everything else causing death, and b) death has a ripple effect... 1/
So you don't just have a high load of death, you have a whole cohort of people - family, friends etc, being affected by these deaths. Death of someone close to you is very often a pivotal moment in your life. When everything you hold to be real is challenged...
... you come out the other side of that grief with a vastly different set of priorities. So whether you think the death statistics are important or not, there is a much bigger picture here and it's that society is shifting and changing right underneath you.
Read 8 tweets
May 16, 2022
What healthcare workers really want, more than anything, is for people to be truly free of preventable diseases and poor health, for the disabled to live in and access the world freely, and for chronic diseases to be managed into the background. 1/ (rant incoming)
This is a big, and dangerous idea. People being free from disease means addressing all the big names. Big food. Big fossil fuels. Big pharma. It means holding people truly accountable to their actions towards others, to hold them responsible for traumatising others.
The "personal responsibility" crowd, simply wish to absolve themselves responsibility for the harm they do. Harming others is a direct cause of ill health. A box of chicken nuggets being cheaper than fruit and vegetables causes harm. Underpaying people causes harm.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(