really prevent over 1.3 million cases?[67] In the field of public health, people often refer to disease control measures as ‘removing the pumphandle.’ It’s a nod to John Snow’s work on cholera, and the removal of the handle on the Broad Street pump. There’s just one problem with this phrase: when the pumphandle came off on 8 September 1854, London’s cholera outbreak was already well in decline. Most of the people at risk had either caught the infection already, or fled the area.
