I don’t think the author adequately distinguishes the behavior of medieval people living in the countryside versus cities. The problem of water being unsafe to drink is primarily an urban problem and was so well into the 19th century (as in the cholera epidemics of London). Water isn’t intrinsically unsafe – it only becomes so if ill people infect it through improper separation of drinking/cleaning/elimination usages – which are much more of an issue where people are concentrated.
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