https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-cure-for-covid-19-will-take-more-than-personal-immunity/

At a press briefing on March 22, Donald Trump announced: “We’re at war, in a true sense we’re at war, and we are fighting an invisible enemy.” Yet viruses are not sovereign nations; they don’t have armies, navies or air forces. They might not even be alive. So perhaps war is not only an inadequate metaphor, but one that is fundamentally flawed.

The bellicose terms used to make sense of COVID-19 stem from a series of profound changes in medical thinking sparked by the cholera epidemics that beset Europe during the 19th century. Because the repeated waves of infection appeared to track back from India along colonial trade routes, they quickly assumed the status of “invasions.” In response, a series of International Sanitary Conferences—forerunners of the World Health Organization—convened between 1851 and 1911. These conferences brought together medical and scientific experts, diplomats, lawyers and military leaders to debate how to implement the only viable strategies then available against the rapid spread of infections: quarantine, cordon sanitaire and fumigation. These remain among our most viable responses even today.