The Plague Ward

[Speaker to Animals]

It wasn't the bacteria. All you have to do is go to the original records, especially the parish records, to see that it wasn't the same disease at all. Completely different incubation period. The only thing it really had in common with bubonic plague was the buboes, but those weren't even in the right places. Worse, the Black Death decimated areas that had no mice or rats, so..

Reality is that we have been living with bubonic plague for a long time. It's not such a big deal, really.

A more interesting area to read about is how this idea that the Black Death was the bubonic plague originated. It in the beginning of the 20th century a man made the case on the basis that both diseases exhibited buboes. People just took it as fact and it wasn't until recently that anybody questioned it.

[Smitty-48]

Pneumonic, bubonic, it's the same bacteria, Yersis pestis, it's carried by fleas in the rat population, whether it is pnemonic or bubonic is merely symptomatic, the buboes is the swelling of the lympth nodes, the other vector is pneumonia if it gets in the lungs.

[SuburbanFarmer]

The issue during the Black Death was not mutation, it wasn't a superstrain disease nor anything like that, it was a common bacteria, they just didn't understand microbiology, they didn't know what a bacteria was, they didn't understand what caused it, and they were all wallowing in rats and fleas at all times. It's the kind of thing you're going to catch, in like a third world refugee camp, or living in a garbage dump, places like that.

Yes, but we had existed in cities for millenia previous, without 1/3 of the population dying of it. Something else changed...

[Smitty-48]

The issue during the Black Death was not mutation, it wasn't a superstrain disease nor anything like that, it was a common bacteria, they just didn't understand microbiology, they didn't know what a bacteria was, they didn't understand what caused it, and they were all wallowing in rats and fleas at all times. It's the kind of thing you're going to catch, in like a third world refugee camp, or living in a garbage dump, places like that.

Yes, but we had existed in cities for millenia previous, without 1/3 of the population dying of it. Something else changed...

No, if you get infected, it has a high mortality rate, a bacterial infection can get out of control quite easily, nothing's changed there, you definitely don't want a Y. pestis infection, that's bad, but so is MRSA down at your local hospital.

[Smitty-48]

This sort of bacteria is everywhere, for example, when troops get shot in places like Afghanistan or Somalia? If you get them past the casevac and trauma aid stage, the biggest threat then is the bacteria they picked up on the ground, guy's get all the way back to Landstuhl in Germany, and they're fine, but then the bacteria runs amok in their blood streams and they die from that, and it happens fast.

[Speaker to Animals]

Black Death was more likely a viral hemorrhagic fever.

This whole area in history is getting upended lately. A similar thing happened with the assessment of the epidemic that killed off most of the Mesoamericans. Turns out that probably wasn't small pox, but an indigenous disease.

[SuburbanFarmer]

This sort of bacteria is everywhere, for example, when troops get shot in places like Afghanistan or Somalia? If you get them past the casevac and trauma aid stage, the biggest threat then is the bacteria they picked up on the ground, guy's get all the way back to Landstuhl in Germany, and they're fine, but then the bacteria runs amok in their blood streams and they die from that, and it happens fast.

I’m not struggling with the concept of bacterial infection. I’m wondering why a certain strain suddenly had the power to wipe out 1/3 of Europe, and whether we’re more immune now.

[Smitty-48]

This sort of bacteria is everywhere, for example, when troops get shot in places like Afghanistan or Somalia? If you get them past the casevac and trauma aid stage, the biggest threat then is the bacteria they picked up on the ground, guy's get all the way back to Landstuhl in Germany, and they're fine, but then the bacteria runs amok in their blood streams and they die from that, and it happens fast.

I’m not struggling with the concept of bacterial infection. I’m wondering why a certain strain suddenly had the power to wipe out 1/3 of Europe, and whether we’re more immune now.

There's no immunity to bacteria, it's not a virus, any bacterial infection can kill you, Y. pestis is a very fast reproducing bacteria, gets in your bloodstream and overwhelms your system, but there are literally hundreds of bacterial infections which do that, if you're going to die of bacterial infection, 99% chance you're going to catch it at your local hospital and it's going to be MRSA not Y. pestis.

[SuburbanFarmer]

This sort of bacteria is everywhere, for example, when troops get shot in places like Afghanistan or Somalia? If you get them past the casevac and trauma aid stage, the biggest threat then is the bacteria they picked up on the ground, guy's get all the way back to Landstuhl in Germany, and they're fine, but then the bacteria runs amok in their blood streams and they die from that, and it happens fast.

I’m not struggling with the concept of bacterial infection. I’m wondering why a certain strain suddenly had the power to wipe out 1/3 of Europe, and whether we’re more immune now.

There's no immunity to bacteria, it's not a virus, any bacterial infection can kill you.

I don’t think that’s true. Else we’d be infested and dead within days of a papercut.

[Montegriffo]

This sort of bacteria is everywhere, for example, when troops get shot in places like Afghanistan or Somalia? If you get them past the casevac and trauma aid stage, the biggest threat then is the bacteria they picked up on the ground, guy's get all the way back to Landstuhl in Germany, and they're fine, but then the bacteria runs amok in their blood streams and they die from that, and it happens fast.

I’m not struggling with the concept of bacterial infection. I’m wondering why a certain strain suddenly had the power to wipe out 1/3 of Europe, and whether we’re more immune now.

We are generally in better shape and better fed now.
Bodies from plague pits found recently during the construction of Crossrail in London showed signs of malnutrition and disease. The population was weak and more susceptible to infection.