User:Orcandiver/sandbox

Article Evaluation Additions for History of yellow fever
I chose History of Yellow Fever because it seems very relevant in the current pandemic that we face today(Although I did have a preference for the 1924 LA Plague), and I think understanding some of the nuances that take place during a pandemic of such a large scale may help some find patterns that may map onto our current situation with Covid-19.

For this article I will mainly be scanning over the entire history of Yellow Fever and evaluating the possibility of adding missing sections and expanding on sections that I think are quite lacking; Savannah, Georgia: 1820 section for instance is only two sentences and references other epidemics that happen at a later date. I think taking the time to give more context on those epidemics and how they relate to Yellow Fever.

Also we discussed changing the format to make it more readable for visitors, but at the moment I think it is fine, just there is plenty of room for improvement.

Sources:

Urmi, Engineer Willoughby - Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans (2017). 9780807167748 (ISBN)


 * Also book reviews on this source

Timothy Kent Holliday- Morbid Sensations: Intimacy, Coercion, and Epidemic Disease in Philadelphia, 1793-1854 (2020)

Apel, Thomas- Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Yellow Fever and Common-Sense Natural Philosophy in the Early American Republic, 1793--1805 (2012)

Philadelphia 1793-1805
At the time, the known solution to recovery was found to be long and tedious as it was expected that patients needed to consume bitters and country air away from the metropolitan area, in order to recover. Yet the average citizen typically sought medical help from the Pennsylvania Hospital. Year after year starting in 1793, yellow fever returned to major cities along the east coast including Philadelphia leaving investigators stagnant in regard to progress made in the search for the cause of yellow fever. Making it's first appearance in Philadelphia in late July, yellow fever spread so quickly that within the span of three months the disease had killed around 10% of the population. Yellow Fever's prevalence during this era killed over 10,000 people starting in 1793 where nearly 5,000 people died, striking again in 1797 tallying about 1,500 people, and again the next year in 1798 killing 3,645 people.

Potential Causes
With the spread of yellow fever in 1793, physicians of the time used the increase number of patients to increase the knowledge in disease as the spread of yellow fever, helping differentiate between other prevalent diseases during the time period as cholera, and typhus were current epidemics of the time as well. As doctors and people of interest investigated the cause of yellow fever, two main hypothesis derived from the confusing data they collected. The first being the disease is contagious, as the disease is spread through the contact of people, as ships from the already infected Caribbean Islands had spread to major cities. The second hypothesis being that the disease derived from local sources proposing that contact with them caused the sickness rather than the spreading be with people as yellow fever seemed to be prevalent in major cities and less effective in rural areas.

---Timothy Kent Holliday- Morbid Sensations: Intimacy, Coercion, and Epidemic Disease in Philadelphia, 1793-1854 (2020)

Introductory Section???

Year after year starting in 1793, yellow fever returned to major and minor cities including New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston leaving investigators stagnant in regard to progress made in the search for the cause of yellow fever.

Peer Review By 19rtrudkin (talk) 16:26, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
These additions are very well worded and can go in with only a few changes. I really like the addition of the hypothesis of the doctors but I fear that it may be in the wrong position. It may be more helpful to organize a new section titled causes or theories of causes and put all of the hypotheses in one location. This can help show a timeline on what doctors thought throughout various cities. The same being said for mentioning many various cities under the Philadelphia tab. These additions can help to clear up and organize your additions. Make sure to check typos, the only one I could find was 10,00 instead of 10,000. There is a decent variety of sources which I presume you will be adding to as you go. Overall, this is a very great addition which only needs a few organizational changes. Great job!

I agree with the positioning of my work being a little out of the scope of the section, yet I think with the additions that I did make would constitute a change in the section itself and perhaps combining this section with an overall east coast section in the article instead of a specific year.

I think the section on causes will allow us to expand more on the work and investigation of the doctors of the time.