Lockbar wrote:
Isn’t this how the bubonic plague started in Europe? Mass killings of cats because they were “tools of Satan”, and then along come a cargo ship from Asia to Sicily full of rats with infected fleas. No cats to kill the rats, and the rest is history.
Ahh I can dream can’t I?
It gets worse. China’s population density makes the old medieval European hovels look like huge vacation estates. If something gets loose there, it’s going to spread like crazy.
It also seems to not have occurred to them that the vast surplus of cats is because of the vast surplus of food sources for the things that cats eat. I.E., rats and mice. Kill off the cats, and guess what appears? You got it, the hordes of rodents that the cats were suppressing.
Most folks would much rather encounter cats vs. rats.
I guess the eating habits of the Chinese explains why there is no mention of stray DOGS! In fairness, there are no stray cows or pigs around my house!
I suspect the Beijing Olympics will be laughed at for many years afterward. The Chinese expect to gain prestige, but risk massive ridicule over their sanitation, accommodations, etc. Their young sports slaves will be a horrific embarrassment. It might result in the Olympics never again being held outside the Western democracies.
My wife & I are already debating about taking another cruise, what with all the sick passengers. The idea of going to the Beijing Olympics is laughable. Our days of “roughin’ it” are over.
Louis Pastuer discovered that the source of the disease was the fleas, often found on rats. Therefore, the transmission of the Bubonic Plague was from fleas to humans.