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How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civili

How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civilizations of the ancient world I will suggest that intentionally strengthening local communities and limiting travel and such is a potential antidote to presumably repeating this scenario. Edit: I'm not sure I mean "denying people the right to travel." Maybe I mean something more like "Bring back blimps and other slow travel so germs don't race around the globe in 24 hours."

pdonis 4y ago
If the book's claims are correct (and I haven't read it so I can't give an opinion on that), then apparently travel by foot or horseback is fast enough to spread a pandemic that can bring down a civilization. So I don't see how limiting the speed of travel to blimps will help.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  They didn't have the internet. Speed of information is incredible these days. It's feasible to message the blimp that quarantine is recommended, something Rome lacked.
  - pdonis 4y ago
    > It's feasible to message the blimp that quarantine is recommended It's just as feasible to message an airplane, so again I don't see how limiting the speed of travel is what needs to be done. What needs to be done is to use the speed of information to enable people to take appropriate action. Unfortunately, our society's institutions massively screwed this up. They were telling us in February 2020 that COVID wasn't a big deal, no need to worry, go about your business as usual--at exactly the time when, as we now know in hindsight, we should have been doing things like shutting down international travel and quarantining people who were entering countries until the incubation period had passed. Fortunately for my wife and me, we didn't buy the story we were being told and started taking our own personal precautions months before any so-called experts were recommending it.
    - nradov 4y ago
      None of that would have helped anyway. Highly contagious respiratory viruses can't be contained.
      - ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
        They can't be contained, but time can be bought to develop a vaccine, and that time is measured in lives. With fully closed borders, Australia and NZ managed to have no increase in overall mortality. South Korea didn't even close borders, just imposed entry quarantines with strong test and trace, and was able to obtain a much lower net mortality than North America and Europe also.
        kyleee 4y ago
        just to note; fully closing borders was not possible for most countries, so while it may help, it was never realistic
        ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
        Sure, but every barrier to movement reduces transmissions, makes contact tracing easier, and buys more time for vaccine distribution.
- acjohnson55 4y ago
  The fastest way to cover long distances in those days was by water.
  - jaclaz 4y ago
    Yes, and (while the concept dates back to much earlier times) the actual term quarantine (quarantena) was actually invented by Venetians for ships, which were at the time if not the fastest way to spread a virus/disease, particularly those coming from far countries, surely the more probable one (by volume): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarantine#Medieval_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarantine#Medieval_Europe
nradov 4y ago
Limiting travel would be pointless. The speed of travel doesn't matter much for disease. There was a worldwide pandemic (probably caused by a coronavirus) starting in 1889. It's better to just accept the risk.

pdonis 4y ago

If the book's claims are correct (and I haven't read it so I can't give an opinion on that), then apparently travel by foot or horseback is fast enough to spread a pandemic that can bring down a civilization. So I don't see how limiting the speed of travel to blimps will help.

DoreenMichele 4y ago
They didn't have the internet. Speed of information is incredible these days. It's feasible to message the blimp that quarantine is recommended, something Rome lacked.
- pdonis 4y ago
  > It's feasible to message the blimp that quarantine is recommended It's just as feasible to message an airplane, so again I don't see how limiting the speed of travel is what needs to be done. What needs to be done is to use the speed of information to enable people to take appropriate action. Unfortunately, our society's institutions massively screwed this up. They were telling us in February 2020 that COVID wasn't a big deal, no need to worry, go about your business as usual--at exactly the time when, as we now know in hindsight, we should have been doing things like shutting down international travel and quarantining people who were entering countries until the incubation period had passed. Fortunately for my wife and me, we didn't buy the story we were being told and started taking our own personal precautions months before any so-called experts were recommending it.
  - nradov 4y ago
    None of that would have helped anyway. Highly contagious respiratory viruses can't be contained.
    - ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
      They can't be contained, but time can be bought to develop a vaccine, and that time is measured in lives. With fully closed borders, Australia and NZ managed to have no increase in overall mortality. South Korea didn't even close borders, just imposed entry quarantines with strong test and trace, and was able to obtain a much lower net mortality than North America and Europe also.
      - kyleee 4y ago
        just to note; fully closing borders was not possible for most countries, so while it may help, it was never realistic
        ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
        Sure, but every barrier to movement reduces transmissions, makes contact tracing easier, and buys more time for vaccine distribution.
acjohnson55 4y ago
The fastest way to cover long distances in those days was by water.
- jaclaz 4y ago
  Yes, and (while the concept dates back to much earlier times) the actual term quarantine (quarantena) was actually invented by Venetians for ships, which were at the time if not the fastest way to spread a virus/disease, particularly those coming from far countries, surely the more probable one (by volume): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarantine#Medieval_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarantine#Medieval_Europe

nradov 4y ago

Limiting travel would be pointless. The speed of travel doesn't matter much for disease. There was a worldwide pandemic (probably caused by a coronavirus) starting in 1889. It's better to just accept the risk.