Charles Dickens wrote about the diphtheria crisis of 1856—and it all sounds very familiar

A strange and frightening disease is killing people around the world. Medical opinion is divided and it's very difficult to get an accurate picture of what is going on. The authorities are trying to avoid a panic, travel has been disrupted and fake news is rife. All this was happening when Charles Dickens picked up his pen in August, 1856, to write a letter to Sir Joseph Olliffe, physician to the British embassy in Paris.