The bubonic plague was airborne and not spread by rat fleas.

pauljs75
Some diseases have more than one transmission vector, so there's no reason it couldn't have been both. From person to person, perhaps airborne was the main means of catching it. But the zoonotic vector could still be from rats as carriers and fleas as the transmitting mechanism. In such case, the animal-based vector would make effective quarantining more difficult (people during that era already knew to keep the sick away from everyone else), which is why stopping it was more important.

Exactly. Rather than rushing to the "AH HA!!!! AGAIN WITH THE LIES BEING EXPOSED!!!" statements, maybe BOTH were viable options. Or, maybe the new THEORY is (gasp!) WRONG, lol...

reply to post by Dianec


I am glad that (this) research has been carried out. Many (American) humans hold an illogical and unreasonable fear of rats/mice (some languages only differentiate the two species as "big mouse & little mouse"), due to the blame placed on them for spreading the Black Death. Once again, people like to place the blame on things they don't understand/fear on an EXTERNAL source, rather than facing the truth that, perhaps, they themselves may have been responsible in some way.

If people took the time to learn about these fascinating creatures (rodents in general), they might not be so quick to put out the traps/poison, perform lab-experiments, etc.. I find it fascinating that the Japanese blamed some of the problems at the Fukushima plant on a rat chewing through electrical wires. We also use "rat" as a means of conveying negativity about a person, "dirty rat, rat-faced ****, I don't give a rat's ***", etc. On the other hand, the Chinese see the rat as a symbol of prosperity, wisdom, and luck, and a Buddhist deity, "Ganesha", is almost always depicted with a rat (often using the rodent as a vehicle, or pulling a chariot), and there is a temple in India where the rats are "worshiped". In Vietnam and some other cultures, rats are a staple of their diet- people raise and eat them like chicken!

I hope some people will take on a different view of rats...
Check this out: www.ebay.com...

jaffo
reply to post by andy1972

 

I love how willing people are on here to buy ANY theory or new information so long as it helps them feel like they're smarter than "the experts." Here's an idea: Maybe you should wait for confirmation before you use this to prop up your "WE'RE ALL BEING LIED TO!!!!" thing. Just a thought...

Who said "we're being lied to?"
Just because a part of history is found out to be wrong, it doen'st make it a lie, unless of course it's intentionally wrong.

I never said it was a lie..

Lied to , misled or did they get it wrong ?

Logical questions when it comes to common held beliefs being proven wrong.


(1) Some academics do choose to lie out rightly for prestige , money , grants etc... That is simple fraud ( not that common )


(2) Some academics choose to cheery pick evidence that suit a pre-existing theory. ( very common )

But this is where it gets murky quickly. Quite a few of these academics are willing to at least cite research they know to be fraudulent to bolster their paper.

The peer review process is flawed because so many 'peers" are guilty of the above. It is in their best interests to not ask questions , Even common sense questions like..

" can a bug even spread that fast via flea bites ? " .



Subjects that get you a book published are at the top of the lists for this behavior. ... eg... Nutrition, Exercise , Psychology etc...


But even genetic research is effected up to 99% of the time....

www.bioedge.org...-Rws.email

reply to post by andy1972


That would be 'Pneumonic' plague and it was by far the more contagious, fast acting and deadly version which tends to die out faster because the people do not live long enough to transmit the disease to others outside of a family unit.
However it starts with the oriential rat flea as the primary vector and that is what spreads the majority of the disease.


So what is your point? This is not new information.

andy1972
As we all know, history tells us that the bubonic plague that wiped out most of Europe in the 13th century was spread by fleas from rats...well, they were wrong, dead wrong.

Specialists from London have examined 25 skeletons from the Clerkenwell area, and they believe they have found the truth about the disease that killed millions.

The DNA found in the samples of 'yersinia Pestis' taken from the teeth of the skeletons was compared to that of the plague which killed 60 in Madagasacar recently and it's basically identical, not more virulant, so for it to have spread so rapidly and to have killed so many in such a short period of time the disease must have been spread by coughs and sneezes, so it was airborne, pneumonic rather than bubonic plague.

Quote - 'According to scientists working at Public Health England in Porton Down, for any plague to spread at such a pace it must have got into the lungs of victims who were malnourished and then been spread by coughs and sneezes. It was therefore a pneumonic plague rather than a bubonic plague. Infection was spread human to human, rather than by rat fleas that bit a sick person and then bit another victim'.

Makes you wonder how much more of the history that we have been taught is wrong.

edit on PM3Wed20141972 by andy1972 because: (no reason given)

Um...it's always been well known that severe cases of the bubonic plague can become the more virulent pneumonic variety that is indeed spread by aerosolized particles.

The disease has always been spread by rats (fleas on rats actually) as a primary vector and we've always known that there was a more severe pneumonic variety--usually seen, as correctly stated by the article, in malnourished, immunocompromised people. This is neither surprising news nor indication that "we have been lied to."

andy1972

jaffo
reply to post by andy1972

 

I love how willing people are on here to buy ANY theory or new information so long as it helps them feel like they're smarter than "the experts." Here's an idea: Maybe you should wait for confirmation before you use this to prop up your "WE'RE ALL BEING LIED TO!!!!" thing. Just a thought...

Who said "we're being lied to?"
Just because a part of history is found out to be wrong, it doen'st make it a lie, unless of course it's intentionally wrong.

I never said it was a lie..

But it wasn't "found out to be a lie." Every textbook on the subject I've read in the last 30 years describes the pneumonic variety of the disease. Just because most people have a rather two dimensional or incomplete understanding of things, does not indicate a grand scheme to lie to them.

The fact is, by and large the disease is spread by the flea which is its primary vector. That's how the plagues spread throughout Europe and arrived form the orient--on ships and goods that had infected rats. That the disease can take on a more virulent type that is spread by airborne particles does not make the first fact untrue.