It's been a while since I've read Leviticus in detail, but certainly there what we would today term isolation and social distancing guidelines.
But the attire (including any possible facial coverings) mandated for "lepers" in Leviticus was primarily to serve as a warning to the rest of the Israelite community to stay away, and thus mitigate the threat of contagion by isolation and social distancing.
Still, what is remarkable about the guidelines for identifying "leprosy" (which, as you noted, was back then any one of a number of conditions producing sores and rashes on the skin) was that there were specific criteria stated for the priest to use, including monitoring over a week's period to see if the condition resolved itself. While crude and perhaps of questionable accuracy, they are nevertheless a depiction of diagnostic criteria several centuries before either Hippocrates or Galen.
May 18, 2023
at
11:27 PM
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