Two-thirds of the population of Europe survived the Black Death. I’m still trying to figure out how they possibly could have done it.
Because that figure you are quoting is after about the third time it swept through!
Each time it leaves a surviving population with an increased genetic predisposition to survive the next infection.
The time it came though in the Age of Justinian it was really really bad! We don’t have a lot of surviving records of that. It’s probably what enabled Islam to expand. Being off the beaten trade track (Mecca being a trade center is very likely a Muslim self serving myth!) Arabs suffered the least from the infection. When they were “inspired to sally forth”, it was mostly into a power/population vacuum!
“Two-thirds of the population of Europe survived the Black Death.”
Which means 1/3 did not. Not exactly the kind of thing people tout as a public health victory.
No airports, minimal travel, die within 10 miles of where you were born, kill/ban outsiders from entering village who look sick....pretty easy to suffer ONLY 33% morbidity!