I don't agree with you, as italian we read for example in school a story I think is also famous in other parts of the world, "I promessi sposi" like it's transl

I don't agree with you, as italian we read for example in school a story I think is also famous in other parts of the world, "I promessi sposi" like it's translated as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Betrothed_(Manzoni_novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Betrothed_(Manzoni_novel), and there are described at a certain point confinements for the plague, also I've read about confined city for epidemics of smallpox, so I don't think it is about modern society, I think it's more about the numbers and death rate of disease..