This is yet another book about the 1918 Influenza pandemic that was published during the Covid-19 pandemic. Published by Mayo Clinic Press, it narrates the live of a Dr Pierre Sartor who left his birth countrey Luxembourg, settled in USA and became a doctor where he cared for patients in a rural community.
The author who is Dr Sartor's granddaughter, put together her grandfather's live through accounts from her father who drove his father as they went on housecalls, as well as her grandfather's letters and artefacts.
This reconstruction puts a face to the frightening Influenza pandemic, and reminded readers that ultimately simple commonsense does indeed play a very important role when a community comes face to face with an unknown virus. Dr Sartor's very brilliant but very low tech doctoring of isolating patients from the rest of the family worked very well then, and continues to serve us well today.
This has to be a very important lesson as cities become more and more densely populated. As Covid-19 had demonstrated, isolating a patient within his/her dwelling can become quite impossible without sufficient rooms and ensuite bathrooms in a house/apartment. Something urban planners and apartment/house designers ought to keep in mind.
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