So, I was on vacation in Morocco in February. I traveled there by ferry from Savona, Italy. On the way back all the eyes on the ferry were glued to the TV screens airing news reports on the first coronavirus cases and deaths in Italy. Lots of pale and worried faces. Scared, because for many their final destination was the most affected region with the corona outbreak.
Since ferry ride From Tanger-Med to Savona lasts around fifty hours, I decided to educate myself on this coronavirus. I downloaded several books about viruses and the one that looked easiest to understand was Flu Hunter Unlocking the secrets of a virus by Robert G Webster.
In the book Webster writes about his expeditions he organized to recover viruses from migrating seabirds, starting in Australia in the early 1960s. He discovered that influenza viruses circulate readily among seabirds, often without causing disease. These birds can then transmit the virus directly to humans or via intermediate hosts such as (poultry, pigs, dogs, horses…) where, with a few mutations, viruses can achieve pandemic proportions.
Half way through the book I realized that I won’t get much information on corona viruses from the book since they are different family of viruses than influenza. Still, I finished the book anyway since it contains an interesting story on how they recovered the H1N1 influenza virus, the one that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. Eventually, they took some samples from bodies buried during the Spanish flu pandemic in mass graves in Alaskan permafrost and manged to isolate the virus that killed between 25 and 40 million (some estimates go up to 100 million) people worldwide.
The reason I remembered reading the book was the tale from a couple of days ago when I wrote what kind of food would be available to medieval quarantined people. For the source of eating habits in that period I just took the still-life paintings from 14th-17th century.
This painting in particular caught my attention. My brain was, “Ok, I don’t think we can blame Chinese people for causing every damn plague. Some plagues might as well originated in Europe.”
The brain was probably pissed because it remembered an article from a about year ago about customs police catching a Romanian guy smuggling 1.349 dead birds, including thirteen different protected species, into Italy to be eaten for exuberant prices. And I don’t know, anyone checked these birds for dormant influneza viruses?
And the brain got even more pissed because a few days ago I read an article about the biggest plagues in history.
Antonine Plague (death toll 5 milllion)
The plague is thought by modern scholars to have originated in China and spread westward along the Silk
Plague of Cyprian (250-266 CE)
This outbreak is also thought to have originated in China and traveled along the Silk Road to Alexandria and then on to Rome.
Plague of Justinian (541-542 CE & onwards)
This plague, considered the most devastating up to that time, is also thought to have originated in China and traveled to India via the Silk Route and then on to the West.
Thought to, considered, allegedly, supposedly, rumoured… fine evidence you got there.
