It didn’t disappear btw. The black death wasn’t 1 round of disease that killed everyone. There were waves of it and the big on in Europe wasn’t the first or last deadly outbreak. It is still around but thanks to antibiotics it is mostly a non issue.
Fake News
Submitted 1 month ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/e455768b-586b-4289-8f59-e233ad520292.jpeg
Comments
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world 1 month ago
When I was stationed in Colorado, we were doing our exercise in an open field of grass, rolling around, doing push-ups and sit-ups etc, when someone ran up and told the person running the formation that we needed to move because plague had been discovered in the prairie dog droppings all over the base, just like the ones we were apparently rolling around in
Fun times
icelimit@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
If I know anything from my time in the Army, everyone just went over to the next hill and continued rolling around in the contaminated uniform.
Midnitte@beehaw.org 1 month ago
Right, we still regularly have cases.
Just completely ignores history, changes in human hygiene, and developments in medicine that weren’t vaccines (“let’s just ignore antiserums, sulphonamides, and streptomycin!”).
Teppa@lemmy.world 1 month ago
How did it only kill 1/3, did many people survive it?
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Some people didn’t get it and some had the right genes to fight off the disease. Those genes have now been linked to autoimmune diseases …harvard.edu/…/genes-protective-during-the-black-…
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 month ago
In addition to what the other commenter said, there’s some luck of the draw, too. There were three forms of it, having to do with how you were infected. Bubonic was one, associated with sores and boils on the skin, caused by flea bites. Pnumonic was a lung infection, which could spread directly via droplets. And septemic was the blood infection version, usually happening as one of the others progressed.
Bubonic only killed about 40-60% of those who showed symptoms, while pnumonic and septemic killed 90-100% of those who showed symptoms.
So to get infected at all, you needed either to be bitten by an infected flea, share air with someone who has pnumonic, or share fluids with someone that has bubonic (specifically the pus from the sores) or septemic (the blood, though maybe other fluids too).
Some managed to avoid these entirely. Others could have had lower exposures to the point where they didn’t develop symptoms. If someone gets infected but the infection doesn’t get established enough to become stable, they often don’t get treated any differently from people who weren’t infected at all. Those death rates only apply to those that they knew had it (though sometimes death rates are given per population rather than infected, and those tended to vary wildly in infected areas, from like 50% to 80%).
With viruses, at least, asymptomatic infection seems to be far more common than we would have thought. Both ebola and covid antibody studies showed that the antibodies were found in many who never got sick, implying they were exposed but their immune system beat it before symptoms showed up.
Bacteria isn’t necessarily the same, but it’s possible that something like this is a factor and those might have even developed some immunity. Plus, natural selection would select for people who are just less susceptible to it while it’s out there killing off a significant part of the population.
Objection@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
The word “quarantine” originates from a Venetian policy that every single ship had to wait outside of port for 40 days to ensure nobody had the plague. I’m sure the antivax people would have no problem with such measures?
icelimit@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
What would they do if everyone on a given boat just straight up died from the plague?
cunnililgus@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Wait another 40 days and collect the free loot.
d00ery@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Them’s the breaks… Sea fairing was a dangerous occupation.
I guess eventually some enterprising individuals would attempt to salvage the boat and contents…
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
“One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.”
rainwall@piefed.social 1 month ago
That why a rhetorical tool that personalizes death may work.
Something like “okay, your mother is now dead. And now your wife, and auntie and even your old highschool girlfriend. You watch them all die, bewildered and distraught, but you do nothing until your son dies in front of you, choking on a resporrator, pleading in his eyes until the very end.”
“You can stop the rest of your family dying right now right now, right way. Do you still refuse?”
FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Let me tell you about my mother.
Avicenna@programming.dev 1 month ago
depending on the person one death could also be a party
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Doesn’t have to be one, I’ve made a list
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 1 month ago
Oh I am partying once Trump keels over. Absolutely no shame admitting that.
echodot@feddit.uk 1 month ago
It hasn’t disappeared. It’s still exists, it’s just that if you get it modern antibiotics can kill it.
BallShapedMan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It also killed between 10% and 100% (average of a 3rd or so) of populated areas every 10 years for about 600 years. So ~3x longer than the US has been around.
8oow3291d@feddit.dk 1 month ago
But I assume that nobody at the time had autism, because they were not vaccinated. Worth it!^/s^
negativenull@piefed.world 1 month ago
That’s because Tylenol didn’t exist yet
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So sick of seeing confidently incorrect people opining, using historical examples, when they have never before cracked open a history book and have no idea of the context.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So sick of seeing confidently incorrect people opining, using historical examples, when they have never before cracked open a history book and have no idea of the context.
This has always been the case.
The issue is Twitter boosts them. The problem is the medium.
OpenStars@piefed.social 1 month ago
Legitimately, what else would they use? Hardly anyone uses Mastodon - I don’t for sure, but from what I hear, the devs continually ignore the needs that people keep asking about. Which is why so many turned to Bluesky - it works.
To discuss the Threadiverse that I am much more familiar with, literally 100% of the people that I’ve told about “Lemmy” have outright chided me for having told them about it. (1) If you Google’d that term (not DuckDuckGo, I’m talking mainstream normies here) a year ago, it would take you to lemmy.ml; (2) that instance by default does not show All, but rather Local; (3) lemmy.ml - along with lemmygrad.ml and hexbear.net - routinely calls for the murder of everyone participating in a capitalist, Western society. And showing Local rather than All does not dilute that flood as much as you see your view of the Threadiverse content from lemmy.world. (4) no major Lemmy instances defederate from lemmy.ml (quokk.au did iirc, before it switched all the way over to PieFed).
There are some MAJOR structural issues with the Fediverse that need to be solved first, before mainstream normies - who remember are primarily centrist (aka liberal to even right-wing by the standards here) - will feel comfortable here. Not celebrating and calling for their literal irl murder might be a start. (Note that while YOU might have such communities and user accounts blocked, a guest account, especially browsing lemmy.ml, cannot and would not know how to deal with such - e.g. a new account on most instances could respond to comments in Chapotraphouse@hexbear.net while browsing All and have no idea what they are walking into… then noping out and worst of all, telling everyone that will listen how extremist we are here)
We are a Nazi bar here, except instead of Nazis it’s tankies. Also, purity beatings will continue until morale improves. Mainstream people do not feel welcomed here. And most people seem unable to even say so much as they should be? Would you want more “right-wing” people here? (I actually mean centrists, but especially in the USA where so many are located, that is more where they would lean, right?)
Teppa@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Henry Ford believed the Elders of Zion, and he was a cultural icon in business, which I assume meant he was top tier intelligent at the time.
capybeby@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I worked at a zoo for a bit and whenever we went in the prairie dogs enclosure we had to wear lowkey hazmat and fully sanitize before & after bc they can carry it
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The Black Plague was truly a horror, but it DID break the back of Catholicism in Europe, so that’s nice. Every cloud has a silver lining
leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
It broke feudalism, too, and kickstarted the renaissance.
jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
How so? Didn’t Luther do that a couple hundred years later?
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 1 month ago
At the time of the plague, the Catholic church dominated every state politically; they were the undisputed masters of Europe.
After the plague, they never recovered the same amount of control again, the start of a long decline that continues to this day. The plague revealed how truly ineffectual and predatory the church was, even to the most ignorant.
Recommend the books The Black Death and The Dancing Plague
AeonFelis@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It did not disappear. It’s still posting on social media.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 month ago
Kind of rude to talk about Kanye like that
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Also it didn’t disappear?
These people are just willfully ignorant and deeply faithful.
dadarobot@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Uhhh penecilin? Also i think its still around, its just easilly treatable
qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Bubonic plague is still a thing.
Zwiebel@feddit.org 1 month ago
In 2022, the possible origin of all modern strains of Yersinia pestis was found in DNA in human remains in three graves located in Kyrgyzstan, dated to 1338 and 1339. The first recorded occurrence of the Black Death occurred shortly thereafter during the siege of Caffa in Crimea in 1346, and was carried to Europe by boat by people attempting to escape the disease. The strain was identified as the most recent common ancestor of both strains found in historic graves and currently existing strains.
Holy shit that’s wild
InappropriateEmote@hexbear.net 1 month ago
Exactly this. Not only did it essentially wipe out entire populations and even drastically alter the course of civilizations (repeatedly), it has not “disappeared.” It is still endemic in mammalian (mostly rodent+flea) populations in some areas including in the US. Every year there are people who get infected with it. I think it’s an average of like 7 people per year in the US, but as usual, countries more heavily exploited by the US and its vassals get it worse. Hundreds of cases per year in DRC for example. It’s hasn’t “disappeared,” this antivaxxer nitwit just doesn’t know about it because modern medicine has made it treatable and precluded its ability to spread as it did in previous centuries.
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
The black plague is common in Madagascar for example, in villages which can’t be reqxhes without a helicopter and people there have no money for antibiotics. So doctors without borders are doing there best, but it’s still there (among other places). The vaccine for spreading misinformation is education, but sadly people prefer to get their knowledge from tiktok while letting AI do their school work, if they go to school at all.
Avicenna@programming.dev 1 month ago
It find not cause imaginary autism though.
Auli@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Ah you see it killed only non autistic people leaving a higher percentage if autistic people to breed.
This is completely fake comment.
webkitten@piefed.social 1 month ago
It also disappeared without plumbed toilets and water purification.
j_z@feddit.nu 1 month ago
Wouldn’t the proper follow up have been: ”and so did 1/3 of Europe”?
Gosplan14_the_Third@hexbear.net 1 month ago
where it kept coming back periodically for 500 years
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
At first I attributed this to dumbfuckery but lately I’m again seeing more of these opinions but now from people who see it as an opportunity
ikidd@lemmy.world 1 month ago
JD Vance cheering on the Bubonic Plague.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
[deleted]crapwittyname@feddit.uk 1 month ago
Technically, it didn’t disappear at all!
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Wasn’t one of the reasons was realization hygiene was important so helped cut down on spread of it after a while?
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 month ago
i think multifactorial and all the rats eventually died out or something, due to reintroduction of especially terrier dogs/cats. also likely brown rats displaced the black rats.
TheEntity@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s Europe’s fault for being so weak. Better tell me how many Americans have died because of it!
homes@piefed.world 1 month ago
The Black Death (bubonic plague) that devastated Europe and Asia in the 14th century did not occur on the American continent.
However, a later, separate outbreak of the bubonic plague was introduced to the Americas around 1900, resulting in the following recorded deaths:
United States (1900-1904): The first major outbreak in San Francisco killed at least 119 to 172 people.
United States (1900–2015): A total of 1,036 human plague cases were reported in the U.S. during this period.
United States (1900-1942): Before antibiotics, there were 511 cases, of which 336 were fatal (66% mortality rate).
United States (Recent): In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases are reported in the U.S. each year. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov)
Key Facts on Plague in the Americas: Origin: The plague arrived in the US on rat-infested steamships from Asia, primarily affecting West Coast port cities.
Endemic Status: The disease established itself among wild rodents in the Western US (especially New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado).
Location: While rare, modern plague cases in the Americas occur primarily in the United States and Peru. Smithsonian Magazine
TheEntity@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’ve got to appreciate a serious fact check under my half-assed joke. Thank you, that was genuinely interesting.
I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I prefer people who survive the plague 🤷♂️
someguy3@lemmy.world 1 month ago
In today’s installment of it’s always projection: This is why Republicans project that the left is a death cult.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yeah but what has it done for you lately
axont@hexbear.net 1 month ago
Plague still exists mostly as a problem in poor countries without access to antibiotics. I think sheep get it too and it’s a problem in livestock.
Also there was a large plague vaccination program in India in the 1890s
Lemminary@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Does anyone have any recommendations on books about the black plague?
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I SAID WHAT I SAID Look if you can’t trust someone using #antivax in their post then at least be a decent person and extend some grace with the understanding that we’re all basically just normal people doing the very best we can in this world – at our core we are all good people and a diversity of thoughts is our strength. But also my opinion is more valid than your opinion and no amount of facts can make my opinion wrong because it’s an opinion and that would be wrong. Gotcha suckers.
rumba@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
#prodeath
JimBeann@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Let’s not get lost in the details
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 month ago
Also, the Black Plague has not been eradicated. It still exists in small mammals such as gophers and rats, and a strain could potentially mutate to humans again.
The reason it seemed to disappear is because the more infectious and fatal strains spread to and killed off every susceptible human at a rate that could not support its propagation to new healthy humans.
eatCasserole@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It actually still exists in people too, it’s just rare and treatable.
healthline.com/…/seriously-dont-worry-about-the-p…
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Plague: Then vs now
Image
13igTyme@piefed.social 1 month ago
It’s rare because we have higher hygiene standards. Basically washing our hands eliminated the black plague.
protist@retrofed.com 1 month ago
I assume you mean well, but this is serious “confidently incorrect” energy. Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes bubonic plague, never changed to become less virulent and can still affect humans to this day. It has been killing a ton of humans for thousands of years and was still killing thousands of people at a time in localized outbreaks up until we discovered the antibiotics that cure it.
Also, it’s transmitted through the fleas on small mammals, not through the mammals themselves. Flea transmission is far and away the primary vector. Human to human transmission has always been pretty rare, since it can only be transmitted between humans through contact with bodily fluids, similar to how HIV spreads.
scytale@piefed.zip 1 month ago
Plague Inc. has taught me how to be more effective and prevent this from happening.
Auli@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Its bacteria not a virus. Our hygiene is the biggest reason it is “gone”. No longer throwing shit in the streets.
Smoogs@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I see you haven’t been to some towns that literally still throw shit in the streets.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 month ago
And?