{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,27]],"date-time":"2026-05-27T20:07:09Z","timestamp":1779912429245,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":3,"publisher":"American Public Health Association","issue":"3","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Am J Public Health"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In this article, I explore the historical resonances between China\u2019s 1911 pneumonic plague and our current situation with COVID-19. At the turn of the 20th century, China was labeled \u201cthe Sick Man of the Far East\u201d: a once-powerful country that had become burdened by opium addiction, infectious disease, and an ineffective government. In 1911, this weakened China faced an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Manchuria that killed more than 60\u2009000 people. After the 1911 plague, a revolutionized China radically restructured its approach to public health to eliminate the stigma of being \u201cthe Sick Man.\u201d Ironically, given the US mishandling of the COVID pandemic, observers in today\u2019s China are now calling the United States \u201cthe Sick Man of the West\u201d: a country burdened by opioid addiction, infectious disease, and an ineffective government. The historical significance of the phrase \u201cSick Man\u201d\u2014and its potential to now be associated with the United States\u2014highlights the continued links between epidemic control and international status in a changing world. This historical comparison also reveals that plagues bring not only tragedy but also the opportunity for change.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2105\/ajph.2020.305960","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,21]],"date-time":"2021-01-21T21:01:26Z","timestamp":1611262886000},"page":"423-429","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["The Manchurian Plague and COVID-19: China, the United States, and the \u201cSick Man,\u201d Then and Now"],"prefix":"10.2105","volume":"111","author":[{"given":"Ruth","family":"Rogaski","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The author is with the Departments of History and Asian Studies, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"844","reference":[{"key":"bib9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bridie Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850\u20131960 (Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press, 2014), 90.","DOI":"10.59962\/9780774824347"},{"key":"bib10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0950268809990136"},{"key":"bib19","first-page":"78","volume-title":"Health and Hygiene in Chinese East Asia","author":"Sean Hsiang-lin Lei","year":"2010"}],"container-title":["American Journal of Public Health"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.2105\/AJPH.2020.305960","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,18]],"date-time":"2023-10-18T17:49:04Z","timestamp":1697651344000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/full\/10.2105\/AJPH.2020.305960"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]},"references-count":3,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]}},"alternative-id":["10.2105\/AJPH.2020.305960"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2105\/ajph.2020.305960","relation":{},"ISSN":["0090-0036","1541-0048"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0090-0036","type":"print"},{"value":"1541-0048","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]}}}