Scrolls & Leaves | Eerie echoes of one of history’s deadliest pandemic in Covid-19

Rich countries rushed to secure vaccine supplies, leaving scraps for the poor world. But their self-interest is nothing new.

Waldemar Haffkine gives a cholera vaccine from the Wellcome Collection. Credit: Scrolls and Leaves

In 1817, a British surgeon in Bengal was called to a house to deal with a health emergency. Inside he found a man pale in the face, in the throes of death.

The surgeon, Robert Tytler, realised this is cholera. And before he knew it, the disease spread across the Ganges Delta. There were so many victims that there wasn’t enough fuel for funeral pyres. People drop bodies into the Ganges, according to one account -- an eerie echo of events during India’s second wave when hundreds of bodies were found floating on the river.

The disease hitched a ride on British troops and spread across India, and by 1833, as far as the Americas. Cholera was known as “blue death” as people turned that shade before dying. And much like Covid-19, was known by its place of origin at the start. The disease became known as “Indian” cholera. India was thought to spew the disease out of its soils; Indians were thought to be its carriers.

From the 1850s onwards, Europeans protected themselves by improving their water and sanitation infrastructure, and limiting the movement of people from the poor world. The British Raj began surveillance of Indians, restricted movement, and when Indians died, their bodies were quickly burnt. For an Indian to leave the country and move westward, he had to undergo health checks and obtain bills of health.

In 2021, more than a year after Covid-19 spread globally, 64.1 per cent of people in the rich world had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the United Nations Development Program. Meanwhile, only 5.8 per cent of people are vaccinated in the poor world. Many nations have restricted the movement of people who are unvaccinated.

Episode 4 of the Scrolls & Leaves podcast tells the story of the cholera pandemic that draws links between our past and present. Many policies during Covid-19 have troubling colonial origins. How so? Listen using the audio player to find out, and subscribe here. This episode is made in immersive audio and sound comes at you from 360 degrees, which means itsounds best using headphones.