[neverdem]

His knowledge of history ain't so hot either.

The black plague was unknown in Europe until a Genoese ship fleeing from a Mongol seige of a Black Sea port in 1347 brought it. This was after the end of the LCO, which is usually put around 1300.

Most scientists believe that the Black Death was an outbreak of bubonic plague, a dreaded disease that has spread in pandemic form several times through history.

FWIW, I doubt that was the first time Yersinia Pestis caused a pandemic. IIRC, it's endemic to the Southwest of the USA.

[Sherman Logan]

Something was unique about the Black Death. It killed far more as a percentage of the population than any other known disease in history, with the probable exception of some of the pandemics that devastated native American populations during the 1500s.

The exact organism causing early outbreaks of disease is difficult to determine. The great Plague of Justinian is often referred to as being bubonic plague, yet many historians think it was more likely to have been measles, which caused huge mortality in a population new to it.

My major point was that the author made a point hat interaction between the Mongols and Europe led to no major disease outbreaks, a statement contradicted by the facts of how Black Death spread.