Covid as Medusa's raft

In 1816, the Frigate of Medusa, sailing from France to Senegal for the purpose of colonisation, sank in Mauritanian waters. Of the 450 crew members, 250 managed to survive thanks to the support boats, but they left 147 people behind on an improvised raft.

Of the latter, only 15 survived after two weeks adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. It is a tragic story, immortalised by the painter Théodore Géricault in his work Le Radeau de la Méduse [The Raft of the Medusa], and exposes the darker sid...