The Black Death, Europe's deadliest plague that wiped out a third of its population between 1347 and 1351, may not have been the all-consuming Apocalypse as it was once thought. According to this article in the New York Times, the plague may have instead, targeted the already least healthy.
This certainly would put some ideas of this chapter of the middle ages on hold and historians might have to rethink some previous conclusions. There was no doubt as to the statistics, but what were the state of the people who died and could this help us with present and future pandemics?
Of course, the cursory conclusions penned by this article were that those with malnutrition, poor health, and the elderly were the most likely victims rather than healthy individuals, and if this is the case, then we are looking at the same issues in health today. Interesting.


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