The concept of people being sick because they deserve it and must have done something unfavorable in the eyes of God is not a new one. It’s an easy explanation given by the strictly religious and/or well-off parts of society who are spared from whatever epidemic is going on. I found it interesting that not only was this reasoning completely inaccurate during the cholera epidemic in London, Snow found two places where tens of people were spared: the workhouse, home to some of questionable character, and the brewery, where the workers would drink malt liquor instead of water.

John Snow is now lauded for finding the cause of the cholera epidemic, but it was upsetting to read about how no one believed him because they believed so strongly in the miasma theory. Had the public known about V. cholerae being a waterborne disease, many lives would have been saved. This makes me wonder about the diseases and sicknesses that are prevalent now that don’t have cures. While the newspapers in Victorian London were lamenting that no one would ever find a cure, no one listened to the one man, one of the most respected doctors and scientists of the time, who knew the truth. What if the same thing is happening now with a cure for cancer, or AIDS, or Alzheimers or any of the other illnesses we listed in class? What if someone has the cure everyone is desperate for but no one is willing to hear them out and fund the research?