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Could the Black Death Actually Have Been an Ebola-like Virus?
nature.com ^ | Nov 8, 2013 | Julia Paoli

Posted on 09/30/2014 9:04:16 PM PDT by Marie

Things seem to be looking up for rats. After more than 500 years, rats may be off the hook for causing the Black Death, the horrible plague that claimed up to 60% of the European population. In virtually every textbook the Bubonic Plague, which is spread by flea-ridden rats, is named as the culprit behind the chaos. But mounting evidence suggests that an Ebola-like virus was the actual cause of the Black Death and the sporadic outbreaks that occurred in the following 300 years.

At the forefront of this theory are two researchers from the University of Liverpool, Dr. Christopher Duncan and Dr. Susan Scott. Let's look at six small pieces of this puzzle.

(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS: blackplague; ebola; nonext; yersiniapestis
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And interesting theory, in light of recent events.

#5 raised an eyebrow with me.

1 posted on 09/30/2014 9:04:16 PM PDT by Marie
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To: Marie

I guess we’ll find out?


2 posted on 09/30/2014 9:05:31 PM PDT by x1stcav (Leftism is like rust. It corrodes twenty-four hous a day.)
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To: x1stcav
I guess we’ll find out?

Not with the lying goons who are running things now.

3 posted on 09/30/2014 9:09:07 PM PDT by Octar
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To: Smokin' Joe; null and void

Ping!


4 posted on 09/30/2014 9:10:28 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Marie

Thanks for digging this up. I mentioned it to another FReeper who I’d, well, have to go dig this up for. thx


5 posted on 09/30/2014 9:10:59 PM PDT by txhurl (2014: Stunned Voters do Stunning Things!)
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To: Marie

Black....Death? can we still say that?


6 posted on 09/30/2014 9:11:12 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill)
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To: Marie

Good find, thanks!


7 posted on 09/30/2014 9:11:30 PM PDT by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: txhurl

Here it is on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Return-Black-Death-Worlds-Greatest-ebook/dp/B000PY4534/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=


8 posted on 09/30/2014 9:11:46 PM PDT by Marie (When are they going to take back Obama's peace prize?)
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To: Octar

What is your opinion of point #5?


9 posted on 09/30/2014 9:12:16 PM PDT by Marie (When are they going to take back Obama's peace prize?)
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To: Marie

#5 does seems to fit the bill.


10 posted on 09/30/2014 9:12:32 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Marie

Wow, great read, by a high schooler no less. Let’s hope she lasts through this plague, she’ll have a bright future.


11 posted on 09/30/2014 9:13:35 PM PDT by To Hell With Poverty (Epesians 6:12 becomes more real to me with each news cycle.)
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To: Marie

They must have had ‘Rats back then too.
Today we call them democrats.
Paralysis and virus and now ebola brought to you by the modern ‘rat party.


12 posted on 09/30/2014 9:16:14 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: x1stcav
Great. Now we're using the "climate change" model to the Ebola virus. Bubonic Plague is caused by a bacteria. Not a virus!!

Via Wiki:

After being transmitted via the bite of an infected flea, the Y. pestis bacteria become localized in an inflamed lymph node, where they begin to colonize and reproduce.

13 posted on 09/30/2014 9:18:30 PM PDT by Antoninus II
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To: Marie

So, we know that Ebola isn’t infectious until symptoms begin, but the first symptoms are fever, sore throat and muscle pain. (just like the flu)

This guy didn’t seek treatment until he was two days into that period. The doctors examined him, presumably diagnosed him with the flu, then sent him home.

Two days later, he was finally sick enough that the meds could (while factoring in travel) finally figure out that he had Ebola and admitted. Considering that the CDC had a team on route before the lab tests came back, his symptoms must’ve been definitive by that time.

Two days later, he’s critically ill.

I think that the danger with this outbreak is going to be those two days when a person is sick, but the symptoms haven’t clarified as Ebola. The worst part about that is a repeat of the scenario that this guy went through. Go to the ER or clinic, infect the other patients and staff, then go home and continue to infect your family.

But, what may help us is that the flu feels pretty horrible. Most people will call in sick and do their best to stay home. Nobody’s going to be running far if they feel that lousy.


14 posted on 09/30/2014 9:23:15 PM PDT by Marie (When are they going to take back Obama's peace prize?)
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To: Antoninus II

Killjoy! :)


15 posted on 09/30/2014 9:23:27 PM PDT by Pox (Good Night. I expect more respect tomorrow.)
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To: Antoninus II

They’re questioning if it was Plague at all. (And the book was written in 2004)


16 posted on 09/30/2014 9:28:14 PM PDT by Marie (When are they going to take back Obama's peace prize?)
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To: To Hell With Poverty

Just to be clear, she was writing about a book, “Return of the Black Death: The World’s Greatest Serial Killer” by Duncan and Scott.

The theory is not from a high schooler.


17 posted on 09/30/2014 9:31:11 PM PDT by Marie (When are they going to take back Obama's peace prize?)
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To: Marie
There have been several alternate explanations of the pandemic called the Black Death, a couple of them viral: measles and smallpox. The difficulty is that the symptoms described don't appear to match the known symptoms of either of these, nor do they match those of a hemorrhagic fever such as Marburg or Ebola.

There were three forms of the disease: bubonic, wherein the major symptom was a highly swollen lymph node, septicemic, a blood infection, and pneumonic, where the disease was contracted from inhalation of infected droplets. All of these can be caused by Yersinia pestis, and that isn't true for the alternates. So either we're dealing with more than one simultaneous plague, perhaps as many as three, or we're dealing with one disease organism that causes all three. For the latter, Y. pestis seems the best, but not the only, fit.

Historical epidemiology has another couple of mystery plagues: the Plague of Athens (429 BC) that has never been convincingly identified and that has been theorized to be an Ebola sort of virus as well as Yersinia pestis, typhus, smallpox, measles, etc, etc; and the Plague of Justinian (AD 541) that most authorities think to be a strain of Y. pestis that became extinct afterwards, but in fact could have been nearly any of the others. These plagues were world-changers: the first determined the eventual outcome of the Peloponnesian War and hence much of the subsequent history of the West, and the second, one of the factors that so depopulated north Africa and Asia Minor that the onslaught of Islam in the next century became possible.

Fun stuff to read about and consider in the comfort of one's study, not so much fun to live through. I don't think we're about to do any such thing, but then there were people who said that in the 14th and 6th centuries AD, and 5th century BC that probably said the same.

18 posted on 09/30/2014 9:32:09 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Marie

On FR is no need to read and understand an article before commenting. It’s in the by laws somewhere I am sure of it. ;-)


19 posted on 09/30/2014 9:33:19 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Octar

“Not with the lying goons who are running things now.”

Exactly. Post of the day.


20 posted on 09/30/2014 9:35:03 PM PDT by jocon307
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