The Little World

Oh, what a load of tales circle about the Plague Doctor’s costume.

You can Wiki them yourself – I did and was immediately suspicious of the stories and supposed history. So many illustrations and rumours from the middle ages and renaissance eras have taken on lives of their own that I take many of them with a grain of iodised…

Nevertheless, I do remember the general introduction of paper and cloth masking in my own former profession during the 1970’s and 1980’s – for different reasons than that of the beaked plague doctor seen here. Like effective latex gloves, they were a step up in prevention of cross-infection.

I think they worked – I do not recall any of the patients I treated dying of infection in the surgery or at home later. I and my nurse seemed to experience less colds and influenza after gloving and masking, and I never got any infected fingers.

In the 2020’s pandemic period I adapted well to wearing a mask out in public – it was no new thing – and again seemed to suffer little. My ears heard more infected matter than ever I touched…