Yes it’s 2020 And bad things are happening. But diagnosis of some plague cases in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia they do not presage a repetition of the Black Death. As the call murder hornetsThis scare is another failure.
As we mentioned before, a few cases of plague are in the news every year. Plague is a disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, and the disease it causes is known as bubonic plague if it infects the lymph nodes, and pneumonic plague if it infects the lungs.
Although the plague 1300 pandemics is one of the best known diseases it’s never really gone. It infects rodents more often than people, and plague “deposits,” as they are called, are known in Mongolian groundhogs and prairie dogs in the southwestern United States. Between one and 17 people are diagnosed with plague each year in the United States. According to the World Health Organization, there were 3,248 cases and 584 plague deaths worldwide Between 2010 and 2015.
The plague is still serious and can be fatal, but it is treatable with antibiotics. (If you think you have plague, seek medical attention.)
“The word ‘plague’ often evokes ‘medieval’ so that many people assume that the plague has disappeared.” Winston Black, a medical historian, wrote me in an email. “Journalists rely on this … ignorance to present story after story featuring localized plague outbreaks such as the possible return of the Black Death. That misleading representation is even more common now during COVID, as the plague spread. you can add to the litany of terrors (for example, murder hornets in Canada) that are used to generate clicks (or ‘sell newspapers,‘if that is ever done more) “.
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There is no reason to believe that the plague is one more threat this year than last year, or the year before. Black says he’s more concerned with COVID than the plague, but notes If you’re ready to look beyond the latest pandemic, other diseases like tuberculosis and malaria claim millions of lives worldwide each year.
Still, perhaps there is a reason we are more interested in the plague right now. “The stories told by European and Middle Eastern authors (Christians, Jews and Muslims) about the plague have been repeated and expanded for centuries, providing us with the language and range of emotions and reactions that are considered “acceptable” or “normal” in the face of a pandemic, “says Black.
We are already experiencing a pandemic that is a global phenomenon (hopefully) unique in life. That alone is enough, isn’t it?
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