Thread: @ccleighton, there was apparently a time when politicians were subordinate to local Departments of Health. 1/7 https://twitter.com/ccleighton/status/1327621751367458818

According to "The Last Plague," in 1918 it seems that local Departments of Health had unchallenged jurisdiction to implement public health measures. 2/7

Even when John W.S. McCullough, the Chief Officer of the Ontario Provincial Board of Health warned against non pharmaceutical interventions: 3/7

Municipal officials were at liberty to ignore him: 4/7

Unfortunately, the result was a piecemeal response: 5/7

The degree to which narrow interests were represented in the governance of local Departments of Health seems to have contributed to inaction in some regions.

Dr. Boucher was the Director of Montreal's Department of Health but met with internal opposition: 6/7

Physicians had to resort to a direct appeal to the public via the media of the day... 7/7

...much of this seeming eerily familiar to the present...