In this article for Firstpost, Vaidehi Tandel, Junior Fellow, writes about how governments can be better prepared for COVID-19, and uses past examples of epidemics as lessons for the present.
Excerpts below:
“The period during and after the industrial revolution was particularly grim in terms of the incidence and devastation caused by epidemics since living conditions were extremely conducive for the spread of disease and the science of germ theory was yet unknown.
As a result, governments were ill-equipped to prevent outbreaks from occurring. Where city governments were successful in preventing frequent epidemics, urban living and the physical form of cities changed in fundamental and lasting ways. Some of the methods of dealing with epidemics that were tried and tested by city governments in those periods are still the best ways available to us today. It is therefore worth revisiting previous instances of epidemics and draw out lessons in civic administration that can be replicated.”
Read the full article here.
Note: This work was done by the author/s when they were a part of the IDFC Institute and is republished here with permission.
