Perciaccante A, Malacrea M, Coralli A, Donell S
Department of Medicine, Azienda-Sanitaria Universitaria Giuliano-Isontina, "San-Giovanni-di-Dio" Hospital, Gorizia, Italy.
Laboratoire anthropologie archéologie biologie (LAAB), UVSQ, UFR des sciences de la santé, Université Paris-Saclay, 2, avenue de la source de la Bièvre, 78180 Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France.
Ethics Med Public Health. 2021 Sep;18:100657. doi: 10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100657. Epub 2021 Jun 16.
COVID-19 put out many interesting aspects of society's responses to an epidemic. Epidemics have a long-standing history in literature. We want to analyze if society's responses to the epidemic have changed over time, and what literature can teach about the society's reaction to an epidemic.
We searched and discussed the references to the social effects of the epidemic that are provided in three famous works of European literature providing descriptions about society's reactions to an epidemic throughout the centuries have been selected: "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio, "The Betrothed" by Alessandro Manzoni, and "The Plague" by Albert Camus.
Literature teaches us that: the epidemic's spread is often preceded and favoured by a phase of negation or under evaluation of the problem; restrictive measures are the most efficient for containing the virus' spread; some people have difficulties in being compliant with these measures; infodemia may accompany an epidemic, feeding chaos and fear among the people.
Looking at examples of epidemics reported in the past, we can conclude that the current COVID-19 pandemic shows that society's responses to an unknown disease are not changed over time.
新冠疫情展现了社会应对疫情的诸多有趣方面。疫情在文学作品中有着悠久的历史。我们想要分析社会对疫情的应对是否随时间发生了变化，以及文学作品能让我们了解到社会对疫情的哪些反应。
我们搜索并讨论了欧洲文学三部著名作品中有关疫情社会影响的参考文献，选取了几部描述了几个世纪以来社会对疫情反应的作品：乔万尼·薄伽丘的《十日谈》、亚历山德罗·曼佐尼的《约婚夫妇》以及阿尔贝·加缪的《鼠疫》。
文学作品告诉我们：在疫情传播之前，往往会有一个对问题否定或评估不足的阶段，这有利于疫情传播；限制措施是控制病毒传播最有效的方法；一些人难以遵守这些措施；信息疫情可能伴随疫情出现，加剧民众的混乱和恐惧。
通过审视过去报道的疫情案例，我们可以得出结论，当前的新冠疫情表明，社会对未知疾病的反应并未随时间而改变。
