In this episode of Footnotes we're gonna expando on a post (The Origin Of The Word Quarantine, I Bet You Didn't Know) 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but why 40? This is a Franz post so the answer is SCIENCE for sure, right? Fuck that, we humans have been isolating people to prevent disease since ancient times, do you really think those guys use science? PLEASE! They used the best thing they had, RELIGION! 40 days are an important and repeating subject in religion, Jesus fasted for 40 days, the Flood lasted for 40 days, the Jewish people wandered the desert for 40 years, 40 is a huge number in religion because it represented a long time, you could say that number forty-fied their believes...
shit even I cringed with that one... lmao!!!
Now, the obviously stuck, the reason? We as humans love tradition and often are ignorant of our own shortcoming... well yes but that's not why it stuck, the true reason is that it worked, that simple, the quarantine of 40 days measure was, for a lack of a better word, officialized during the black death, this disease was caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis and 40 days was more than enough to counter contagion because it outlasted the period of incubation and transmission of that deadly and awful bacteria
And now we use the word quarantine for not just a period of 40 days but anytime we need to isolate someone or something to prevent spreading, and it all began because some people wanted to make god do the work of science and it worked as always right? dumb fucking luck Salem witch trials??? I don't know what you're talking about nervous laughter you're so silly guys...
Quarantine | Wikipedia
40 (number) | Wikipedia
History of Quarantine | Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Mysteries of vernacular: Quarantine - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel | TED-Ed
Where Does The Word 'Quarantine' ACTUALLY Come From? | The Infographics Show
