Maybe Rats Aren't to Blame for the Black Death

Nationak Geographic ^ | JANUARY 15, 2018 | Michael Greshko

[mass55th]

"I thought it has long been known that fleas were the cause..."

That's what I've always heard. The rats were the carriers.

[silverleaf]

Whooooaaa
Getting a plague shot in ‘73 was a real icky feeling
Like- wth is THIS about

Thanks for being unwilling guinea pigs to improve the safety of the vaccine!

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Spread by seamen.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Anything warm blooded can carry the fleas.

[Tax-chick]

the plague vaccine was defective and virulent.

Oops. I'm glad you lived through it.

Bacteria and viruses are always trying to get around whatever barriers we try to erect.

[sparklite2]

I thought so, too.

[pa_dweller]

New Light on the Black Death proposes it was asteroid strikes.

[pa_dweller]

See my post #27.

[TChad]

Ha! Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khoJsN3nNzM

[SunkenCiv]

Plague Infected Humans Much Earlier Than Previously Thought [2794 BC]
EurekAlert! | October 22, 2015 | Joseph Caputo of Cell Press
Posted on 10/24/2015 6:14:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3352556/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nickcarraway.

[IronJack]

More revisionist blather ...

[Pelham]

The rats have hired a P.R. team to scrub their past and finger the insects.

Figures.

Rats.

[Fiji Hill]

The term “Black Death” was not used during the Middle Ages but was coined later. The same goes for “Renaissance,” “Industrial Revolution” and “Roaring Twenties,” labels which were coined long after the periods to which they refer.

[Pontiac]

“In plague, there’s a lot of hot debate,” says Dean, who sees herself and Schmid as more objective observers in this case. “We have no dogs in this fight.”

I recall that in London at the time they thought that dogs were the cause of the plague and set out to exterminate dogs.

Of course, with no dogs to kill rats the rat population exploded.

[nevermorelenore]

And this is new News ???? How stupid, learned this as a child ....

[SoCal Pubbie]

A few years ago I read that some researchers felt that bubonic plague could not be the Black Death, or at least not the only cause. I believe the lack of rats in done areas was part of it but also how the plague progressed in its victims. Maybe those theories have been discounted since that time.

[Inyo-Mono]

Yes, that is essentially what the book Return of the Black Death talks about. That the Black Death was something other than bubonic plague which is normally spread by rodents. We have a case or two around here every couple of years or so.

[SoCal Pubbie]

If I recall correctly, the article I read indicated that anthrax and an Ebola like virus were thought to be possibilities. I think they excavated an old human burial ground in London of the time and they found anthrax. Again if I remember right cattle was kept in that area back at the time of the Black Death.

[Rebelbase]

Come back it's not your fault!