Pandemics of History - The Bubonic Plague (Yersinia Pestis)

Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen who identify as ladies, pansexuals, nonbinary, etc. I welcome you to the latest edition of Pandemics of History, a series that nobody cares about because you stupid idiots keep starting threads about Carol Baskin and John Bel Edwards. In today’s thread I will discuss the Bubonic Plague, the worst pandemic to ever afflicted mankind. Also known as the Black Death, the Pestilence, the Great Mortality, and the Great Plague. This disease was caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis (also responsible for the “Plague of Justinian” and “The Third Pandemic”) and wiped out half of Europe. This disease killed an estimated 200 million people globally. It took Europe 200 years for the population to fully recover.

The Black Death originated in East Asia, where it was carried on fleas on Black Rats via trade routes into Europe and the Mediterranean area in the fall of 1347. It quickly spread amongst the population and devastated Europe. Afflicted persons would soon be covered in Black sores, which were were known as buboes, from which bubonic plague takes its name. Other symptoms include raging fever, joint pains, and swelling of the groin, armpits, and behind the ears. If untreated, bubonic plague would kill its victims in 30 and 75% of all infections, often within 72 hours.

One of the most fascinating historical excerpts of this outbreak were the “plague doctors” who wore badass costumes with bird masks, seen below:



These doctors were city employees, and treated everyone, although they were known to jack up prices in certain instances and treat people with false cures. Most of them weren’t even doctors, just merchants and medical school students. Any a-hole could wear this mask and be considered a plague doctor. They really didn’t know shite about the disease and were just pretending to be pandemic experts, much like Karen on your Facebook page or Billy Bob who works in the oil field.

There were so many deaths daily from the Bubonic Plague that people literally didn’t know what to do with bodies. They were just placed in carts and piled up nonchalantly on the streets. Sanitation practices were already horrible in the 14th century, and masses of decaying corpses certainly didn’t help. Historical accounts describe the smell of death flowing through the streets of European cities. If JBE had been in office he could have closed all the gyms and prevented most of these casualties.

Through quarantines and social distancing, the Black Death eventually began to die down in 1353 CE. There would be several more outbreaks continuing into the 18th century. The disease was eradicated from the world during the Great Fire of London in 1666, killing the majority of the fleas and rats who were harboring the disease