[Billthedrill]

Plague can certainly still kill people, particularly if it isn't recognized right away. It's unlikely to go epidemic in developed nations, however, since sanitary conditions are so much different these days. What made it a "plague" in the first place was that enough people got infected by rat flea-bites such that the few of them in whom that transitioned to the pneumonic form of the disease were enough to create another vector of contagion. Once it becomes spread by coughing it's a lot more dangerous.

[bannie]

You seem to have a good handle on this...

Isn't it true that it still exists in the Steppes (?) east of Europe and in the mountains just west of the San Joaquin Valley in California (just west of ME!)?

Every so often, we get warnings about feral critters being particularly pesty.