Posted on 01/21/2023 7:16:22 AM PST by SunkenCiv
I agree. One of the links regarding the Antonine Plague was to a similarly modeled paper.
Clearly the author’s “slow-moving rats” term wasn’t based on direct personal observation.
The rats moving down the lines from ships to piers were observed and an account survived, but A) that’s unsurprising as observations go, and B) the writer didn’t note that the rats stopped to scratch themselves. :^)
Human crews probably contributed to the introduction and spread.
https://health.wyo.gov/wyoming-detects-rare-human-case-of-pneumonic-plague/
Any kind of tiny critter could be carrying it, probably, lots of parasitic mites and whatnot have been buggin’ the human race for ages.
And voles, don’t forget them.
Did they have Democrats back then?
Looks like a vole is about to be called up yonder.
We used to get a bounty of a $1 per Crow. I don’t recall anybody ever shooting a crow and nobody got a dollar either!
“We used to get a bounty of a $1 per Crow”
Now that you mention it, don’t birds carry some kind of mite or bloodsucker?
Sorry I missed your post before making my own on bird mites.
no worries, i post before reading replies too and repeat what others say=- it happens
“All world plagues and pandemics begin in China.”
Maybe there was some genetic variation that predisposed western people to infection by diseases that Mongolians were immune to. The inverse of this seems accepted re American Indians. While many Europians carried DNA from the Steppe migrations , many populations remained remote.
It would be easy enough I guess to compare genetic makeup and geography to recorded incidence. Since Germany and eastern parts of Europe would have had a higher concentration of Mongols, some variation of infections and death might show up assuming control for population density.
I only know enough to wonder about this.
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