Major epidemics and pandemics

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Time_Traveller
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Major epidemics and pandemics

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"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
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caltrek
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Re: Major epidemics and pandemics

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Edit: This replaces a cartoon, the link to which has been broken.

What the 14th Century Plague Tells Us About How Covid Will Change Politics
by Daniel Gingerich and Jan Volger
November 7, 2021

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... ory-519717

Introduction:
(Politico) Nearly 700 years ago, Europe experienced the single most devastating pandemic in recorded human history. Within a timespan of roughly four years (1347–1351), an outbreak of plague tread an awful path across most of the continent, claiming the lives of about half of the population. Economic activities like mining and metallurgy came to a complete stop. In some cases, villages constructed around marginal
agricultural lands were entirely abandoned, to be reclaimed by the forests. Chroniclers at the time referred to the event as the “Great Mortality” — today we know it as the Black Death.

Yet the legacy of the Black Death goes well beyond human suffering. The unparalleled pandemic did not just devastate the population in the areas it hit the hardest; it killed off entire social and economic institutions — especially ones that had, up until that point, restricted human freedom and stifled prosperity.

In recently published research, we trace out how the regions that experienced the worst mortality and the most extensive destruction began to look different from those that had fared better. In regions with the highest death toll, the power and social standing of workers went up precipitously, while exploitative labor practices crumbled. As a consequence, government, particularly at the local level, became significantly more democratic and inclusive — effects that could still be seen centuries later.

Today, we may be witnessing the early stages of a similar development. The recent surge in workers quitting low wage jobs, especially in the leisure and hospitality industries, has left employers scrambling to fill empty positions. Some suggest that the Covid pandemic and its fallout have, at least in the short run, augmented the bargaining power of labor. While the available evidence on this point is mixed (there has been only a modest increase in inflation-adjusted wage rates and little change to overall levels of inequality), the history of the Black Death suggests that pandemic-driven shifts in the labor supply can have important and long-lasting economic and political ramifications.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Re: Major epidemics and pandemics

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New Ancient DNA Analysis has Shed Light on How the Black Rat, Blamed for Spreading Black Death, Dispersed Across Europe
May 3, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/951573

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) New ancient DNA analysis has shed light on how the black rat, blamed for spreading Black Death, dispersed across Europe – revealing that the rodent colonised the continent on two occasions in the Roman and Medieval periods.

The study - led by the University of York along with the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute - is the first ancient genetic study of the species (Rattus rattus), often known as the ship rat.

By analysing DNA from ancient black rat remains found at archaeological sites spanning the 1st to the 17th centuries in Europe and North Africa, the researchers have pieced together a new understanding of how rat populations dispersed following the ebbs and flows of human trade, urbanism, and empires.

The study shows that the black rat colonised Europe at least twice, once with the Roman expansion and then again in the Medieval period - matching up with archaeological evidence for a decline or even disappearance of rats after the fall of the Roman Empire.

The authors of the study say this was likely related to the break-up of the Roman economic system, though climatic change and the 6th Century Justinianic Plague may have played a role too. When towns and long-range trade re-emerged in the Medieval period, so too did a new wave of black rats.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Re: Major epidemics and pandemics

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I have not read The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe, but I did find this book review to be interesting:

A Global History of the Black Death
by Jordan Michael Smith
July 29, 2022

Introduction:
(Undark) THE HEADLINES IN mid-June were unequivocal. “Ground zero for the Black Death finally found after 600 years,” one read. The news that researchers, primarily from Scotland and Germany, had identified northern Kyrgyzstan as the origin point for the medieval plague garnered attention around the world. “Our study puts to rest one of the biggest and most fascinating questions in history and determines when and where the single most notorious and infamous killer of humans began,” one of the scientists said.

One had to read the fine print to learn the qualifications of the claims. The study, published in Nature, relied on a small sample size, and there needs to be data on more places, individuals, and times before this discovery can be considered conclusive. Nothing is put to rest yet.

James Belich’s new book, “The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe,” shows the depth and longevity of the controversy over the sources and impacts of an era-defining scourge. Belich, an Oxford University historian, suggests that what is now known as the Black Death was so consequential that its effects equal those of the Enlightenment, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, and the Renaissance. It’s a staggering implication, but he makes a decent case for it in this bold, tremendously researched work. From illustrating the plague’s effects globally to showing how central it was to Europe’s ascension, Belich demonstrates that the medieval pandemic influenced many aspects of human life.

Once called the Great Death or the Great Plague, the pandemic lasted hundreds of years and was so deadly that it is still popularly referred to simply as the Plague. “The Black Death Pandemic, beginning in 1345, persisted for more than three centuries and involved about 30 major epidemics in all,” writes Belich. What’s more, it “did not always behave like the modern pandemic,” he writes further on. “It killed far more people, for one thing.” Belich’s book implicitly underscores that, compared to the devastation of the plague, Covid-19 is relatively insignificant.
Read more here: https://undark.org/2022/07/29/book-rev ... ck-death/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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