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A ‘plague’ comes before the fall: lessons from Roman history
A ‘plague’ comes before the fall: lessons from Roman history
The ruins of the Colosseum in Rome. Credit: Livioandronico2013. CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Pax Romana—the 200-year “golden age” of the Roman Empire—was a marvel of diversity, connectivity, and unchallenged hegemony. By the middle of the second century AD, imperial Rome ruled territory across three different continents. Roughly one-quarter of the Earth’s population, some 60 million people, lived under Rome’s vast aegis, and the emperors of the age—most notably Marcus Aurelius—enjoyed the consent of those they governed. The Empire’s elites—witnessing the disciplined legions, widespread religiosity, cultural efflorescence, and dominant economy—likely expected their world order to endure forever.
In the year 166 AD, however, seemingly eternal Rome was caught completely off-guard as a deadly novel disease swept across the Eurasian landmass. It ransacked Rome’s cities for at least a decade and preceded centuries of decline. This major biological event—now known as the Antonine plague—appears to have been the world’s first pandemic.
Historians hotly debate its death toll—with estimates ranging from 2 percent to 35 percent mortality—and its broader social and economic effects. The disease itself remains undiagnosed. The great Greek physician Galen described its main symptoms as fever, throat ulcers, and a pustular rash. Some have suspected it was measles or smallpox, but modern analysis provides reasons to doubt these as the possible culprits. Human remains from the Antonine plague period, meanwhile, have thus far failed to yield genetic evidence sufficient to identify the pathogen.
Although the plague did not on its own cut short Rome’s dominance, it struck an empire that was confronting multiple challenges beneath a veneer of prosperity and growth—factors that modern-day infectious disease experts might recognize as creating the ideal conditions for pandemics. Much remains unknown about the Antonine plague; in some ways, modern scholars are just as in the dark about this first pandemic as its contemporary victims…
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Plague and Civilization
Plague and Civilization
The plague is a disease that raises its devouring and catastrophic head every so many decades and centuries, especially when humans violently disturb the natural world.
The 2020 plague is one of a variety of pandemic diseases that have afflicted humans for millennia, not necessarily with the same intensity or virulence.
The historical record of plagues is muddled. Like us, past societies under the existential stress of pandemics, failed to keep records, much less accurate records. In many instances, past and present, rulers, medical bureaucrats, and journalists subvert the truth. Political and economic oligarchs fight for survival and supremacy. The picture that survives death is distorted, exactly like the story victors tell after war.
The Plague Among the Greeks
The case of the plague in Greek history may still give us pose for reflection.
The Greeks gave diseases precise names. They called plague loimos (pestilence), nosos (disease, sorrow, suffering), and phthora (destruction, decay, mortality, death).
The plague made its first appearance among the Greeks as a weapon of divine wrath. God Apollo used the pestilence to punish the Greeks for offending his priest.
In the beginning of the first book of the Iliad of Homer, Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Greek troops in the Trojan War, insulted the priest of Apollo by refusing to give back his daughter, whom he had captured in a raid. The priest knelt in front of Agamemnon and begged him to release his daughter. But Agamemnon told the priest to get out of his sight as quickly as he could, lest he lost his patience. The frighten priest run away from the Greek camp and went home. He immediately prayed to Apollo to punish the Greeks. He reminded the god he had built a temple to honor and worship him, offering him rich sacrifices. Make the Greeks pay for my tears, he appealed to Apollo.
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SLOPPY: CDC Shuts Down Military Lab Studying Ebola, Plague, etc. Amid Fears It’s GETTING OUT Through Wastewater
SLOPPY: CDC Shuts Down Military Lab Studying Ebola, Plague, etc. Amid Fears It’s GETTING OUT Through Wastewater
We may not have to wait for a traveler from the Democratic Republic of Congo to visit the United States for an Ebola outbreak. It just might be brought to us by our own military along with the plague and other horrifying germs.
The laboratory at Fort Detrick, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, has been sent a cease-and-desist order by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention after a second inspection showed sloppy handling of deadly germs and viruses.
The CDC inspected the military research institute in June and inspectors found several areas of concern in standard operating procedures, which are in place to protect workers in biosafety level 3 and 4 laboratories, spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden confirmed in an email Friday.
The CDC sent a cease and desist order in July.
After USAMRIID received the order from the CDC, its registration with the Federal Select Agent Program, which oversees disease-causing material use and possession, was suspended. That suspension effectively halted all biological select agents and toxin research at USAMRIID, Vander Linden said in her email. (source)
At this time “no infectious pathogens, or disease-causing material, have been found outside authorized areas.” The New York Times reports that the CDC could not provide more specific details due to “national security reasons.”
What was USMRIID doing wrong?
The laboratory, which is located in Frederick, Maryland, studies different deadly bugs for biological warfare purposes. They have failed inspection specifically by the Federal Select Agent Program, which oversees the possession, use and transfer of biological select agents and toxins that could potentially pose a severe threat to public, animal or plant health.
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The Healthcare Crisis Behind the Curtain – Are We Importing New Plagues?
Charles Dickens wrote about how corrupt the courts were out of control in Bleak House published back in 1859. He began in his first chapter on Chancery:
“This is the Court of Chancery, which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire, which has its worn-out lunatic in every madhouse and its dead in every churchyard, which has its ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of every man’s acquaintance, which gives to monied might the means abundantly of wearying out the right, which so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope, so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart, that there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give—who does not often give—the warning, ‘Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!’”
The rule of law is so dangerous when it lies in the hands of government for inevitably it has historically ALWAYS been abused for political purposes with perhaps one of the most famous cases being that of the trial of Socrates for effectively knowing too much. I paid my respect at the cell where Socrates died in Athens. Torture was legal in England as in the American Colonies. If a charged person refused to plead to the crime the government demanded, he was subjected to peine forte et dure, which meant that he would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon his or her chest until a plea was entered, or he/she died.
Many defendants who were charged with a felony, which was a capital offense, refused to plead in order to avoid forfeiture of property for their family.
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Madagascar Outbreak: It Is ‘Inevitable’ The Plague Becomes Resistant To Drugs
Madagascar Outbreak: It Is ‘Inevitable’ The Plague Becomes Resistant To Drugs
The newest warning about the outbreak of the airborne pneumonic plague, or black death, in Madagascar has been released. Officials warn that it’s inevitable that this bacterial infection that’s infected over 2000 people will become resistant to antibiotics.
The only way to treat a person who has contracted the plague is with antibiotics. But experts now warn that because they are being used so much to treat the infection, antibiotics resistance is inevitable and making this disease much more terrifying. Once the bacteria is resistant, the Madagascar healthcare system will be overwhelmed, and the disease will have control of the nation.
According to the Daily Mail, Madagascar’s healthcare system will be unable to cope if the deadly plague outbreak continues to escalate, a scientist has warned. Scores of doctors and nurses have been struck down with the disease, which is predicted to gather momentum in the coming weeks and there are growing fears hospitals will be unable to meet the illness’ burden. Official figures reveal at least 2,034 people have been infected with the “medieval disease” so far in what has been described as the “worst outbreak in 50 years.” The black death outbreak has so far claimed at least 165 lives.
Although the plague is responding well to antibiotics right now, drug resistance is also an increasing concern amongst experts who predict it will vastly accelerate the disease’s death toll. Professor John Joe McFadden from the University of Surrey told MailOnline: “Fortunately in [the] plague, it has not developed much antibiotic resistance. If that kicks in, the plague will be far, far scarier. If you throw more and more antibiotics at patients, antibiotic resistance is more or less inevitable.”
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How Natural Aids Can Lessen Your Chance of Contracting the Pneumonic Plague
How Natural Aids Can Lessen Your Chance of Contracting the Pneumonic Plague
The thing with this “offshoot” of the plague is that it can be transmitted just by sneezing on someone. Airborne transmission is occurring, where droplets from the infected individual’s coughs, sneezes, and mucous fluids carry the bacteria and spread it. If a person sneezes on the wall, and later another person touches that wall with their hand? Such contact can transmit this pneumonic plague.
In the previous article, we covered some standard pharmacological treatments for this pneumonic plague. Now we’re going to over some herbal supplements you may wish to stock up on. Why? Well, if the plague goes out of control and there’s a shortage of pharmaceutical medications, that is one reason. Another is that if the S hits the fan, the plague will increase both in severity and in the geographic locale. It will spread. The symptoms of pneumonic plague are increased body temperature/fever, weakness, and severe headache, as well as coughing and sneezing. The symptoms usually manifest within 1 to 6 days from the time the person has been infected.
The best medicine is preventative medicine.
Garlic
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Plague is Starting in Africa
Panic has ensued in Madagascar where a recent outbreak of the plague has claimed the lives of at least 24 people. Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana has announced a ban on all public gatherings and demonstrations in effect until the outbreak can be contained.
The plague is a deadly disease caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. It usually begins as the bubonic plague, which is spread from small mammals (such as rats) and fleas to humans. If detected early, the bubonic plague can generally be treated and controlled with antibiotics and proper environmental measures. However, half of all reported cases in Madagascar are the pneumonic plague –- the deadliest form of the disease.
The pneumonic plague is transmitted person to person. Since this form of the plague is airborne, it spreads extremely rapidly and can have catastrophic consequences. Those who contract the pneumonic plague must be treated immediately as it can be fatal within less than 24 hours of onset.
Health officials in Madagascar are now rushing to identify anyone who has come into contact with those affected. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), those at risk will be treated with antibiotics and possibly quarantined.
Formerly known as the “Black Death,” this is the same plague that claimed the lives of 50 million Europeans during the Middle Ages. The disease first reached Europe in October 1347 and quickly turned into a contagion that destroyed nearly 1/3 of the population.
47 already dead in Madagascar plague outbreak — RT News
47 already dead in Madagascar plague outbreak — RT News.
Over 40 people have already died in a plague outbreak on Madagascar and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a “rapid” spread of the bacterial disease carried by rats in the capital Antananarivo.
The death toll of the bubonic plague outbreak in Madagascar has risen to 47, Secretary-General of the Health Ministry of the island state Philemon Tafangy said on Tuesday, while the number of suspected plague cases reached 138.
The first reported case on the island was a man from the village of Soamahatamana on August 31. He later died on September 3.
On November 4, the Health Ministry notified the WHO of a plague outbreak. Since then, plague cases have been reported in 16 Madagascan regions – two percent of which are the pneumonic form.
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BBC News – Madagascar plague outbreak kills 40, says WHO
BBC News – Madagascar plague outbreak kills 40, says WHO.
An outbreak of plague in Madagascar has killed 40 people and infected almost 80 others, the World Health Organization has said.
The WHO warned of the danger of a “rapid spread” of the disease in the capital, Antananarivo.
The situation is worsened by high levels of resistance among fleas to a leading insecticide, the WHO added.
Humans usually develop the bubonic form of the plague after being bitten by an infected flea carried by rodents.
If diagnosed early, bubonic plague can be treated with antibiotics.
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