Out of harm’s way
UNTIL PROVEN SAFE: The history and future of quarantine, by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley (Picador, $49.99 hb)
Quarantine, from the Italian “quaranta or “40”, is one of the oldest Byron spent at least 40 days imprisoned there – gallows were positioned ostentatiously as a warning for those tempted to breach quarantine rules. Quarantines are designed around the incubation period of the bug they are trying to keep out: the traditional length of quarantine – 40 days, hence the name – was longer than the incubation period of the plague. But quarantine doesn’t work for everything. It isn’t much good against yellow fever (carried by mosquitos) or cholera (spread by contaminated food or water). The authors, married American couple Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, potter about the pre-Covid Mediterranean’s long-shuttered lazarettos, musing about the future of designer lockdowns (Manaugh is an architecture blogger). This was, of course, stunningly prescient – they finished the book under a Covid lockdown. There’s also a fascinating chapter about sanitising letters, plus detours into non-medical quarantines for nuclear waste; non-human quarantines for plants; and sci-fi quarantines for extraterrestrial diseases. Sometimes the book’s historical detail is overwhelmed by a plodding, travelogue format. I recommend dipping.
