Isolation in Times of Epidemic: Reflections for our Present from a Smallpox Epidemic in Concepción (Chile)

Abstract

This article seeks to put in historical perspective the implementation of isolation measures such as quarantines, widely used today to tackle COVID‐19. Based on an epidemic that affected the city of Concepción (Chile) in 1789, I analyse the isolation measures adopted by the authorities, the difficulties they had to face in their implementation, and their reception by the local population. It is concluded that lessons from history should take into consideration the dynamic interaction of the public and the private spheres that characterise the experience of the disease in any given epidemic.