5 ms·

Note/Tangent: A quick search shows the black plague killed an estimated 25 million people over a century. Less than Spanish Flu, but a much higher percentage of

Note/Tangent: A quick search shows the black plague killed an estimated 25 million people over a century. Less than Spanish Flu, but a much higher percentage of the population at the time. Up to 95% of Native Americans died from diseases introduced from Europe. That's the largest percentage of a population to ever die from disease that I've heard of, and is the primary reason Native Americans are not the dominant population in the Americas today. Whether there's potential for an unprecedented amount of deaths really depends on how you measure things.

rumanator 7y ago
> Note/Tangent: A quick search shows the black plague killed an estimated 25 million people over a century. Those estimates sound a bit off by a factor of 5 to 10 regarding deaths, and they were concentrated in a 4 year period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death Apparently the black death is estimated to cause the death of between 30 to 60% of Europe's entire population.
- caseymarquis 7y ago
  With you 100% that in relative terms we're not facing anything close to the black death. Everything past this point is just me enjoying my day off by learning about random things, and wanting to know what the actual answer is. My original number was from a search for "How many people died from the black plague.". The first result was a National Geographic article which stated the 25 million number occurring over a century. [1] The linked Wikipedia article states 75 to 125 million, so the two disagree by a factor of 3 to 5. The Wikipedia article cites an Australian Broadcasting Corporation news article for the 75 million number[2], and thus cites 'Anomalies and Curiosities in Medicine' page 617 for the other number. The edition of AaCiM available online -published in 1906- actually has the information on page 893. [3] The information there doesn't match the Wikipedia article. The largest number stated there is 75 million, and cites 'Le Moyen Age Médical', which appears to have been published in 1896. [4] I found an English translation, and the only number I saw was 25 million over 4 years. [5] It's not clear if the author is referring only to Europe, but it seems likely. At this point, I really need to take my dog out, but it seems to me that the vague answer is that tens of millions of people died, many in a specific four year period. Which, goes back to the idea that, in relative terms we're not dealing with anything like the black plague, and that how you measure things is important. [1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/the-plague/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-... [2] http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/29/2149185.htm http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/29/2149185.ht... [3] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Anomalies_and_Curiosities_of_Medicine/4k1rAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA893&printsec=frontcover&bsq=bubonic%20plague https://www.google.com/books/edition/Anomalies_and_Curiositi... [4] https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-54930290R-bk https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-54930290R... [5] https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-54930290R-bk#page/24/mode/2up https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-54...
naveen99 7y ago
Theoretically the opposite could have happened also, and a disease from the America’s or Africa or Asia, and could have wiped out Europe, but didn’t.

rumanator 7y ago

> Note/Tangent: A quick search shows the black plague killed an estimated 25 million people over a century. Those estimates sound a bit off by a factor of 5 to 10 regarding deaths, and they were concentrated in a 4 year period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death Apparently the black death is estimated to cause the death of between 30 to 60% of Europe's entire population.

caseymarquis 7y ago
With you 100% that in relative terms we're not facing anything close to the black death. Everything past this point is just me enjoying my day off by learning about random things, and wanting to know what the actual answer is. My original number was from a search for "How many people died from the black plague.". The first result was a National Geographic article which stated the 25 million number occurring over a century. [1] The linked Wikipedia article states 75 to 125 million, so the two disagree by a factor of 3 to 5. The Wikipedia article cites an Australian Broadcasting Corporation news article for the 75 million number[2], and thus cites 'Anomalies and Curiosities in Medicine' page 617 for the other number. The edition of AaCiM available online -published in 1906- actually has the information on page 893. [3] The information there doesn't match the Wikipedia article. The largest number stated there is 75 million, and cites 'Le Moyen Age Médical', which appears to have been published in 1896. [4] I found an English translation, and the only number I saw was 25 million over 4 years. [5] It's not clear if the author is referring only to Europe, but it seems likely. At this point, I really need to take my dog out, but it seems to me that the vague answer is that tens of millions of people died, many in a specific four year period. Which, goes back to the idea that, in relative terms we're not dealing with anything like the black plague, and that how you measure things is important. [1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/the-plague/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-... [2] http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/29/2149185.htm http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/29/2149185.ht... [3] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Anomalies_and_Curiosities_of_Medicine/4k1rAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA893&printsec=frontcover&bsq=bubonic%20plague https://www.google.com/books/edition/Anomalies_and_Curiositi... [4] https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-54930290R-bk https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-54930290R... [5] https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-54930290R-bk#page/24/mode/2up https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-54...

naveen99 7y ago

Theoretically the opposite could have happened also, and a disease from the America’s or Africa or Asia, and could have wiped out Europe, but didn’t.