Of Hydroxychloroquine and Bloodletting
Yellow fever, race, and the politics of medicine
If Dr. Fauci is our patron saint of infectious diseases, then Benjamin Rush was the Fauci of 18th-century America. Born in Philadelphia on Christmas Eve, 1745, Dr. Rush was a true Renaissance Man. Physician, patriot, author, abolitionist, philosopher, father of American psychiatry, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Rush remains one of America’s most enduring, if lesser-known, figures.
He was also notoriously obstinate, paternalistic, and fervently evangelical. As a physician, he relied less on scientific inquiry and more on dogmatic theory. During Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever epidemic, he believed that God had chosen him to save the city through his now thoroughly discredited and antediluvian treatment of choice: bloodletting.
A deeply committed Democratic-Republican, Rush’s politics were central to his work as a physician and healer. He asserted the existence of “an indissoluble union between moral, political and physical happiness,” which were cultivated by “elective and representative governments.” He democratized medicine by teaching free Blacks, children, and women how to perform bloodletting.
Rush’s legacy is newly relevant as we continue to battle a pandemic that, at times, feels more like a…
