There is a certain truth to this. I'm listening to the wonderful History of Byzantium podcast, and an episode is devoted to the plague during Justinian's reign

There is a certain truth to this. I'm listening to the wonderful History of Byzantium podcast, and an episode is devoted to the plague during Justinian's reign that killed maybe 40% of the population of Constantinople. Whole ships of dead sailors drifted the seas. The description of the disease progression caused by Yersinia pestis is awful. People were throwing themselves off buildings to end their suffering. So higher mortality, and more visible, less ambiguous symptoms (like necrosis, giant lymph nodes, etc.). Not to discount the seriousness of covid at all. I have a relative in his 40s whose life hangs on a thread right now.