jonploug.bsky.social
Historian. Studying historical epidemics & pathology collections
at Roskilde University and PandemiX (Center of Excellence) in Denmark.
541 posts
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I think she has a point about excessive confidence. This may be due to the constant attacks from conspiracists, so I believe we need to factor that in. However, Jane Qiu (and many other scientists) often forget to mention that the main obstacle to understanding the true origin of the pandemic is CN
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There is no reason to believe that they weren't on the trajectory to create one, no matter what Israel or Trump are doing. Any big attack on them will be a setback for them.
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One might have expected this in the 1340s, but doctors with keen diagnostic skills were present at some of the later outbreaks from 1700 to 1820. These were not medieval people and would have noticed the rats, so we should indeed consider other factors.
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That may be for the outbreak 1346-50. However, the plague didn't end there. It continued to reappear for the next 400 years. This period saw the emergence of the printing press and modern medicine. Yet, despite thousands of writers documenting events over these 400 years, none mentioned rats.
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Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) & Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
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Beyond a new catastrophic outbreak of the devastating plague during these years (1562-64) which laid cities waste, Bruegel would have observed the emergence of virulent smallpox strains (imported from the Americas), diphtheria, syphilis, and a lethal influenza variant called 'the newe acquaintance'
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Da jeg selv var i den alder fandt jeg mine forbilleder i dygtige mandlige undervisere (har hørt andre fandt deres i trænere, foreninger etc). De hjalp mig videre. De var robuste, havde intellektuelt og mentalt overskud, havde let til smil og var også empatiske. Det smittede
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Has Trump sent you a thank-you letter yet? He should. Just as the Right in the 1920-30s owed their victory due to the fear of the radical Left, the Right today owes you a debt of gratitude as well. Therefore, Trump should send you a thank-you letter for his victory.
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Absolutely. They push moderates to the extremes, and ultimately, they are not the ones who will face the harsh consequences. They play their game for prestige, and then shrug their shoulders when their country cuts off supplies to Ukraine and makes plans to invade Greenland.
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Indeed, the "slippery slope" argument, while often overstated, is valid here and should be applied strongly.
And what about the deontological argument that doctors should not do harm? I liked that. Who determined it was null?
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Agree. Having watched US discourse from the position of a small state, I am not the least surprised, though. Inhabitants of a powerful state like Kevin demand fealty and are more prone to powerful ingroup outgroup thinking. In the end, their instincts risk destroying it, just like the Germans did
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WOW 🤩
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Christensen's article is excellent, and his argument that sustained sanitary policies by authorities were key to quelling the plague is compelling. It seems likely that the eventual success was due to a combination of such official measures and the evolving hygiene practices we've been exploring.
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Yes, it is still a mystery I believe. More research need to be done!
I'm glad you found the Copenhagen outbreak interesting! There is archival material on it and a Danish book, but not much in English.
There is this article by a Danish historian though:
www.cambridge.org/core/service...
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Oh,yes, Copenhagen was hit hard by its last major plague outbreak in 1710-1711, losing about a third of its population. This was part of the wider plague outbreaks during the Great Northern War.
The built-in cauldrons become very widespread here, though I haven't studied their prevalence in Europe.
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While I know people have always heated water in pots over fires, this observation made me wonder if these more formal, large capacity laundry heating setups became more common or standardized around that period, which, I suppose, would have made flea removal significantly more effective. 2/2
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My observation comes from old Danish farmsteads, where a "gruekedel" – a large, often built-in cauldron – was used specifically for heating great quantities of water for laundry. But I haven't seen any of these going back before the 18th centery. So, 1/2
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- That's an interesting point about soap. I also thought the 18th-century rise in methods for heating water for laundry (e.g., tubs) directly complemented soap's impact on hygiene and the decline of plague in Western Europe. Cold water, probably, did little to remove fleas.
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Thanks for your comment! It's a fascinating subject, and I appreciate your insights. I've read that P. irritans is generally considered a less efficient vector for plague than X. cheopis. Given that, why would X. cheopis not be the primary suspect for human-to-human transmission?
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"Mediocre City" an apt name for a random city :)
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Fuldkommen absurd og skrækkeligt for ham og familien!
Noget man kan gøre for at hjælpe monstro?
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Thank you. You are a steadfast and excellent leader for us Europeans.
We will succeed in providing a safe and sustainable future for our children.
αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν.
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Yes, you often read that it was mostly being transported via rats but is appears that clothing filled with fleas apparently was a much more common route according to sources like these.
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If American policies are so great then why did so many Americans, young and old, die due to covid?
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The same here, but the difference is that we are succeeding with that while you are not.
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There is also a long tradition of conspiracy thinking on the left. They are not immune to such ideas, and the version where the U.S. government is deeply involved in the lab leak aligns with these priors. So there is something in lab-leak that caters to all, I suppose.