When the Solution to an Outbreak Was Right in Front of Us
As COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has spread in recent weeks, so has bad information. Widely shared “tips” have included gargling with salt water or vinegar (thought to eliminate the virus); holding your breath for 10 seconds to see whether you can do it without coughing or experiencing distress (if you can, you supposedly don’t have the virus); taking a few sips of water at least every 15 minutes (based on the theory that it will wash the virus into your stomach, where acid will kill it). None of these tips are backed by evidence. Still, despite early efforts by Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to clamp down on false advice, the misinformation has continued to proliferate.
In the 18th century, it wasn’t just folk remedies that led people astray. During the yellow-fever epidemic of 1793—localized to Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital—doctors dispensed
