“David J. Dalrymple: Classic novel is timely pandemic read - Huntington Herald Dispatch” plus 1 more

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David J. Dalrymple: Classic novel is timely pandemic read - Huntington Herald Dispatch Posted: 27 Feb 2021 09:00 PM PST The pandemic we suffer has been motivation for my rereading of Albert Camus's novel "The Plague" (1948). This novel portrays a pandemic in the coastal city of Oran, Algeria. Camus was aware of previous cholera epidemics. He also was aware of facism. He knew that such plagues "would rouse up its rats again." So this novel can be read literally and metaphorically as an allegorical work appropriate for our own pestilences of COVID-19 and recent authoritarian challenges to our democracy. This fictional bubonic plague evolved into pneumonic plague. It is described by a narrator, Dr. Rieux, who attends to patients. He is aware that death shows no favorites and observes how the poor and the rich are affected differently. He observes how residents were marking time as the plague seemed interminable. He sees how the plague becomes an ever-present reality obliterating old customs, and victimizing citizens in suffering and grief. He notices the priest who sees the plague as God's scourge against modern life, the journalist experiencing separation from the woman he loves, and a friend who wants to correct a social injustice. Readers will notice similarities to our pandemic: personal and collective denials of the crisis, slow but deadly escalation of deaths, incompetent response of authorities. They will observe the responsible self-isolation of many, but the social disregard of precautions by others. There are full hospital wards and exhausted medical and nursing staffs. Church services for the dead are prohibited, weddings and commencements postponed, seasonal festivities are cancelled. There is disorganization of economics and failing eateries as citizens fear contagion from others. Superstitions and conspiracy theories unfold from the anxiety of uncertain times. There is a slow but insufficient arrival of a serum for vaccinations. The deadly virus threatens to destabilize society. In the face of such pestilences, we can feel isolated and powerless, sensing there is nothing we can do. How do we live in what feels like an absurd world where ongoing injustices challenge our hope and sense of meaning. A surviving old man in the last pages of this novel asks: "What does it mean, the plague? It's life, that's all." However, within the novel there are images of a compassionate self-sacrifice that may pose a humanitarian response for fighting the plague. As I read of the voluntary sanitary squads of citizens, I was reminded of so many services rendered in our Tri-State community: the food pantries, neighbors looking after neighbors, service agencies helping the elderly and vulnerable to find shelter, internet savvy kin helping the less skilled to find vaccination appointments, and of course the front line workers caring for victims at personal risk. This book is relevant as we try to find moral and emotional resources in the face of COVID but also the plague of "would be" authoritarian impulses in our nation. We should continue to read and reread Camus's work at this time of pandemic and polarization. Camus reminds us to reject fatalism and affirm our sense of agency through love and service to others, especially the vulnerable.

31 dead in DR Congo plague outbreak - INQUIRER.net Posted: 19 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST Bunia, DR Congo — Thirty-one people have died in an outbreak of plague that erupted in northeastern DR Congo three months ago, health officials and experts said on Friday. "We have more than 520 cases… of which more than 31 have been fatal," Patrick Karamura, health minister in Ituri province, where plague is endemic, told AFP. ADVERTISEMENT The cases are the bubonic form of the disease, except for five cases of pneumonic plague and two of septicaemic plague, he said. Anne Laudisoit, an epidemiologist with a New York-based NGO called Ecohealth Alliance, said the cases had surfaced between November 15 and December 13 in Biringi, in Ituri's Aru Territory. FEATURED STORIES The average age of patients was 13, but this varied between three months and 73 years, she said. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert in July of a plague outbreak in Rethy, also in Ituri. The plague has persisted in the province since it was first confirmed there in 1926. A long-feared disease with biblical connotations, but treatable today with antibiotics, the plague is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Laudisoit, who is in the area with a team of researchers, said an early sign of the latest outbreak came with the mass death of rats. Germ-carrying fleas which live in the rats' fur then look for other hosts in proximity, which are humans. The bacterium is then transmitted through flea bites. The east of the Democratic Republic of Congo also struggles with episodic outbreaks of Ebola. Healthcare has been badly hit by militia groups that teem in the region. Read Next EDITORS' PICK Don't miss out on the latest news and information. Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000. TAGS: 1926, bubonic plague, Death Toll, DR Congo, Ebola, flea bites, germ-carrying fleas, Health, plague, pneumonic plague, Rat, rat's fur, septicaemic plague, WHO For feedback, complaints, or inquiries, contact us.

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