How the BLACK DEATH affects YOU! How the Black Death has affected our DNA | yersinia pestis
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- WHY did some people survive the BLACK DEATH when others did not and how is arguably the most famous plague in history still affecting us today? In this video from History Calling, we’re going to look at this medieval disaster, which swept through Europe and parts of Asia in the 14th century and hear how new research shows how one of the long-term effects of the Black Death has affected our DNA so that it is still protecting and harming us, even now.
I’ll start with a history of the Black Death, which was caused by the yersinia pestis bacterium and spread to humans by a mixture of rats and fleas. We’ll then look at how the Black Death was spread, the symptoms of the Black Death, famous victims of the Black Death and how many people died from the Black Death, for its mortality rate was so high that it is considered by many to be the most deadly plague in history. We’ll also learn why was it called the Black Death and spoiler alert, it has nothing to do with the symptoms of the disease. After this overview we’ll look at research released in 2022 and based on a scientific study of hundreds of skeletons of victims of the Black Death from England and Denmark which shows that those with a particular trait in their DNA were 40% more likely to survive it (and pass on their stronger genes to later generations). This would make the pestilence one of the most important natural selection events in human history, but that this genetic quirk also makes modern possessors of it more likely to succumb to certain auto-immune diseases.
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The source of the Black Death in fourteenth-century central Eurasia
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[FREE] Ole J. Benedictow, The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever
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[FREE] Evolution of immune genes is associated with the Black Death
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What do you think the worst part of being alive during the Black Death outbreak would have been; watching others die, burying the bodies, waiting for your own infection or something else? Let me know below and remember to check out my Patreon at www.patreon.com/historycalling and my Amazon storefront at www.amazon.com/shop/historycalling
I think dying of it was the worst
For those who survived, many of them were suddenly alone, so loss of community. Staff shortages too. This led to higher wages for workers but the control mechanisms to suppress this economic upward mobility also led to rebellions like the Peasants's rebellion of 1380, because governments had to extend the tax base to keep the state going. This meant that women were taxed for the first time. The Londoner, Wat Tyler, started the rebellion in London when wood-be tax collectors started groping his young daughters' breasts to see if they were 'women'
As if they needed another reason to grope girls. These tax collectors must have regarded this liberty as a perk of the job. Tyler was so insenced at this outrage that he quite rightly slew them
I would have too. The injustice must have been keenly felt or else the rebellion would not have spread. So it brought huge social upheavals in its wake.
Well yes, but I meant before that 😂
I have to completely agree. How horrible it must have been.
@@HistoryCalling Before dying, for me it would be all the close people dying a horrible death. And later the fear of getting it
I think the worst thing would be the feeling of helplessness. Knowing that there was no way to effectively fight the plague would be terrifying.
Yes, it must have been awful. :-(
They had a plague on Venice in the mid seventeenth century that killed a third of the population. It went on for around three years.
Don't take the jab
I think the worst thing about being alive at the time of the plague would be the constant fear of loosing those you love, people must have been so frightened.
Yes, same here. The stress must have been unbelievable.
We all got a taste of that with Covid.
It was like the same feeling with COVID-19
Death was something people back then dealt with frequently.
@@WaiferThymeyes, but I wonder if there were plague deniers in the 14th century?? 🤔
I once read an article about the exact mechanism which caused the flea to be such an effective transmission vector for Yersinia pestis. Once the flea fed on an infected rat, the flea's gullet (filled with the blood meal) would become blocked as the tainted blood meal would clot. The flea was then unable to take any nourishment from successive bites, and would become ravenous. The flea would seek to feed on any warm mammal it could find, and people were usually the best bet. As it bit the human, it would vomit up the previously tainted blood meal with some of the clotted blood from the rat, thus transmitting the bacteria to the human. However, if the ambient temperature were lower than 25 C., the tainted blood meal wouldn't clot, and so the flea would simply pass the bacteria through its system. So both inactivity of rats and fleas in colder weather as well as this feature of the clotting tendency of bacteria-tainted blood meal acted to slow transmission of the illness in colder months.
Huh, disgusting yet fascinating 😄
Wow. That explains it in a horrible way! I now wonder even more about the notion that Y pestis was responsible for the Justinian Plague of 540 CE, since the source I read (Dan Jones' Powers and Thrones) also noted that the 540 outbreak probably didn't spread via vermin and fleas. I will have to read more.
Umm, I'm not too sure about where you read the article, but was that really the case? The northern European countries were hit as hard and fast when the disease reached them. Temperatures in the north would most certainly not have exceeded 25 C for any significant length of time. Just a thought.
Somthing similar to the relationship between the mosquito and the malarial parasite. In lower climes the mosquitoes die before before the parasite can mature.
Fascinating. Is it possible, that either the temperature threshold was lower than 25°C or could it be 25°F?
I think the hardest thing would have been losing your family members. It’s hard to fathom just how horrific this must have been for people.
Yes, especially losing so many in such a short space of time.
We have a cemetery here in my city where most of the victims of the 1917 Spanish flu are burried. Its so sad walking through it and seeing entire families who died within days of each other. Halifax was first devastated by the explosion, then again by the flu. People were still grieving the loss of nearly 3000 people qnd hqlf the city when they started losing more family .
@@WaiferThyme you couldn’t wish a worse fate on your enemies.
We read Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" in English class in high school, and, although it wasn't completely based on Defoe's personal experiences during the plague in 1665, it gave a very frightening and disturbing account of what Londoners went through and were put through during that time.
One of the classroom activities I remember best was our teacher tracing the narrator's journeys throughout the London streets for us on a modern map of London that she had, which made Defoe's account seem even more realistic and truthful. When I visited London years later, I made a point to walk those specific streets that Defoe mentioned.
I strongly recommend reading "A Journal" to get an idea not only of the horror of the plague itself but of what people are capable of doing to each other out of fear. Defoe's account is much more realistic than Pepys' comments in his diary, even though Pepys was writing contemporaneously and Defoe wrote years afterward.
This video has made me wonder if genecists will eventually find genetic reasons for who caught covid and who didn't, and who recovered and who didn't.
Yes, I wonder too what future research into C19 might show. I guess only time will tell. Regarding Defoe, I've only read Robinson Crusoe and I'm afraid I didn't like it at all. I just found it stupid that the guy kept getting shipwrecked, then got back on a ship!
@@HistoryCalling Yeah, I didn't like "Robinson Crusoe" much, either. As a researcher, though, you might like the "Journal." You can read at least parts of it online and get a taste.
@@HistoryCalling Your comments on Robin Crusoe are freaking hilarious.
@@missvidabom Sailors gonna sail.
@@perniciouspete4986 🤣
Interesting fact : The few convents that allowed their nuns to keep cats as pets largely escaped the plague-rats avoided places with so many of their natural enemies…
Ask A Mortician did an excellent video on when the Plague came to San Francisco (and Y pestis has since become common in rats and prairie dogs west of the Rocky Mountains). That outbreak was actually when the relationship of rats to the Plague was discovered, although the actual link (fleas) wasn't uncovered until later.
One of the paradoxical reactions ppl had which often made outbreaks worse in Europe was to kill cats and dogs, but mostly cats. And the reason for this was often linked to beliefs about witchcraft. Ofc the less cats there are around, the more infected rats there will be - which will lead to even more cases. Dogs also hunt rats, but not quite as much as cats do.
The scope of the plague was insane. The amount of death alone was just staggering.
I know. It would be like wiping out the UK's current population, or most of it.
@@HistoryCalling it was probably the closest that the world has ever come to a full economic and societal collapse. Great to see you btw.
I think one of the worst things about being alive at the time of the black plague would be the sense of helplessness. Helpless to help yourself, your family and your community. They must have felt so helpless. 😢
Yes, I think the same. Watching so many die and waiting your turn whilst being unable to escape or fight the disease must have been hideous.
Yet you had to expose yourself to help others...
@@annestrada1724 considering they had no knowledge of germ theory yet they wouldn’t know they were exposing themselves.
i know that in some cases, if a member of a household was affected the rest of the household was locked in together to wait untill it had passed, this meant that aperson could be stuck seeing their loved ones die, be left with their rotting corpse and just wait untill they also died of the plague or some other reason, that sense of doom, of being a prisoner in your home watching your loved ones die, knowing this was the end for you too, and even if you some how survived the plague, the mental trauma you would have gone through, I think that would one of the worst things about being alive then
I am from Irish descent and I have Lupus; this may explain why I got this autoimmune disease when there’s no history of it in my family. Although I think in the past, it wasn’t always diagnosed as Lupus, as it was mistaken for other illnesses. Thank you for the great video. I always enjoy them.
Perhaps, yes. I suppose we'll never know for sure who has an auto-immune disorder because of their plague genes and who doesn't. Testing for it en masse would be such a big task. The results would be fascinating though.
And now I will forever wonder - are these autoimmune mysteries remnants from the plaque? It´s in our familys genetics.
I know a hypochondriac who has convinced himself that he has lupus. He even manifests light symptoms to match his hysteria.
@@HistoryCallingI have Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disease, which is also seen to lead to increased survival & immunity.
You’re very unlikely to get HIV, if that is any consolation.
What I’m getting from this is that I can blame my ancestors that survived for my Crohn’s disease. 😂 I think the worst thing about being alive-and surviving-the plague is losing those that you love and care about in not enough time to gain closure and not being able to at least help them be comfortable as they passed.
Yes, watching your loved ones die (and so many of them too) must have been hideous.
I lost my sister to Crohn's and cancer (yeah, double whammy). I've got 3 autoimmune diseases myself, Fibromyalgia, MS, and Hashimoto's. None of which will kill me but definitely make me miserable. It would be worse to have the plague and watch my kids and husband, parents, and friends die. This revelation about the autoimmune thing makes me wonder if there's a possibility that the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes responsible for breast cancer could be involved as well.
Well, we don’t really have to imagine what it’s like to live through a plague anymore, we’ve done it. I think the main difference though is the lack of information. The doctors at the time couldn’t explain things the way modern medical professionals can. Medieval peasants weren’t even kept informed, they didn’t have daily news reports and regular updates, and the king wasn’t giving out PPE and safety guidelines. They didn’t really know what was going on. I think that would have made it much more terrifying, an illness decimating the population around you while you have no idea why or how to fight it.
Thankfully the mortality rate of C19 wasn't anything like the BD at least, or the 1918 flu pandemic. I just pray we never go through anything like those two illnesses.
@@HistoryCalling Yes, thankfully not. I don’t personally know anyone who died, just a few people who got sick but recovered. Hopefully, at least, something was learned from how fast it was able to spread globally, just in case there is anything more deadly out there.
I remember seeing a documentary years ago about the Delta-32 mutation, which protected against plague then, and also protects against HIV.
I think the book I have is of the same TV series- "Secrets of the Dead"? Absolutely fascinating story!
Thank you for your response. I saw that documentary, too, and found it fascinating.
I find the subject interesting and overwhelmingly sad . One of the reasons I find it so sad, is so many die in any disaster that there often isn't the time or enough people living to properly morn or care for the dead . If I remember the study you mention correctly , one woman who married into a large family saw everyone else die but her genetics helped her live ... surly a hollow victory for her. One of my friends talked and visited in her job a number of folks with Covid. They couldn't be with their families and some of the staff and patients knew they were dying but no one could help them and couldn't let them see their families. . The unaffected can drone on of big government conspiracies but I lost some good friends. ... prevention is no joke.
Yes, I think a hollow victory is a good way of putting it and I'm with you on the ridiculous conspiracy theories. If those people had been faced with something like the BD (which had a much higher mortality rate than Covid) they'd soon have seen how moronic they truly were and taken the preventative measures more seriously.
I think one of the awful parts of living at that time would have been the superstitions and distrust arising as people hoped to survive. Things to avoid, ways to treat it, etc- people were essentially going into it with no tools or knowledge. It reminded me of the beginning of the COVID lockdowns, where we weren't sure if you should, say, sanitize your groceries, or the effect to which masks would limit the spread.
Yes, good point. I remember initially everyone was using gloves and people were saying masks were pointless, then it very quickly changed to 'wear a mask' and that continued for a good 18 months afterwards, maybe even a little longer.
An amazing video as usual, HC!
What I think the worst thing about being alive during the plague would have been, is...the dreaded wait, the paranoia about getting sick. The sheer dread of not knowing what you're confronted with and how to treat it. I think that was well demonstrated during the first wave of the Covid pandemic, when people were dying in massive numbers, and we didn't know anything about it, yet.
The quarantine also would do a number on your mental health, being isolated, fearing other people. It must have had an emotional impact. Just like the Covid one did. Covid changed the world as we knew it (for better or worse) and so did the Black Death before it.
So, to sum it up, I think the worst part of being alive would have been...well, the emotional part and the impact it had on one's mental health because of everything that it involved.
Thanks Anna. Yes, I think the stress must have been horrendous, especially as the mortality rate was so much higher than Covid and it was killing the young as well in droves.
Y Pestis is in several places in the US as it infects prairie dogs and squirrels in the southwest with 1-17 cases per year according to the CDC. At one time the CDC had a field office on the Navajo reservation to monitor prairie dog populations for the disease.
Yikes. Didn't know that. Not man's best friend after all I guess.
@@HistoryCalling a Prairie Dog is a rodent, so definitely not mans best friend 🙂
@@judycat5544 While I, too, smiled at HC's response, she may have meant CDC, who have definitely proven not to be man's best friend over the last 3 years.
Fun fact: I received an immunization shot against the black death back in the 90’s while in the army. If you were stationed in certain areas (CA), it was required.
You're good to go then when time travel is invented. The rest of us will have to steer clear of much of the historical timeline for fear of catching it 😄 Come to think of it, if I could time travel I'd probably catch smallpox, never mind plague 😰
@@HistoryCalling read Doomsday Book. Time travel
Features in that and a historian travels to 1348 which is an error as she is meant to go to 1320, luckily she has had her vaccine against the plague.
@@kimberleysmith818Time Line, by Michael Critchton also makes some ventures into that period.
The plague bacteria is still quite active in a surprising group in the US: prairie dogs. When I first visited the Mt Rushmore area several years ago, I was surprised to see signs saying that the prairie dogs had plague! I guess people approaching the critters, catching their fleas, and contracting plague was a big enough problem that they had to put multiple signs up.
Great video, looking forward to the next one!
Excellent, HC! Had I lived then, I would have found the uncertainty over being another victim the worst experience. Burying the bodies would have been no picnic either. The range of topics you provide is one of the best things about your videos. 👍
THANK YOU STEPHEN. Yes, the constant worry must have been awful, as would burying people you knew and often loved or facing the alternative of leaving them to rot...😰
I would have thought that a visit from a plague doctor would be pretty awful and terrifying too.
What amazes me is the historical recounts of before and after. For instance it appears that children had a full set of beby teeth mimicking an adult full set but after the plague they only had 24. Another comment was that after the plague there was an uncommen occurance of twins and triplets born.
I've read through the comments and found someone who, like me, saw a Documentary made some years ago about how survivors of the Black Death passed along some immunity to the AIDs virus. I found that fact fascinating. Your video also contained a wealth of information. Thank you.
I read somewhere that the Christian churches told people that witches kept cats, so the domestic cat population was very low. A healthy cat population would have kept rats from spreading.
@historycalling Wow! This was an incredible revelation for me. Our family is plagued (pun intended) with Crohn's, psoriasis, celiac, and diabetes. Ancestors were all English, French, and Polish. Very eye-opening, indeed. Thank you, HC.
You're welcome, though I'm sorry to hear about your family's health issues.
@@HistoryCalling Yes, this family, Northern European, English, Irish, Scotts, and Dutch. Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjogren's and Lupus. Very interesting video. I have often wondered why my family has managed to continue through the centuries when one thinks about all the illnesses, health challenges that were faced.
@@beverlyjohnson3025 I'm not sure, but maybe they weren't as affected as today...due to different diet. There is a theory that since 80 percent of all immune cells are in the gut, that you can activate them by moving out bad bacterium and moving in good bacterium through probiotics. If your ancestors were eating pickled, fermented foods, such as sauerkraut and pickled cabbage, and yogurt, maybe they were able to keep their autoimmunities at bay with infrequent flareups. In theory, you could try the same thing by adding even just a tablespoon of yogurt a meal for a couple of months to see what happens. There is a doctor on youtube, Dr. Charam, who claims to have cured people with just this.
They must’ve felt abandoned by God. They were very pious back then. The stench and burying the dead was certainly overwhelming for them. I can’t imagine their fear and uncertainty they felt. I can a little when I worked in the hospital during covid. Even with medical advancements that we have today it was hard watching many patients die in one shift. We all took proper precautions but me and my friend got real sick with covid. Others were lucky. Doctors and scientists are still learning the complexities of this virus and other microorganisms. I read that report you mentioned. My maternal grandparents were Europeans. I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and Sjögren’s disorder at age 26. I developed other autoimmune disorders after covid. I can’t wait to see what other breakthroughs doctors and scientists come up with. Microbiology has always been my favorite subject. I find it fascinating.
Thank you for the history lesson. Have a lovely weekend.
Thanks Letitia. I agree that it's fascinating. We'll have to wait and see what long-term studies of people like yourself who survived covid but were very ill show.
I think it's impossible to imagine how it felt to those people at the time. I think most people felt it was a judgement visited on them by God. They had an entirely different outlook on life than we have today. To them, the most important thing was to make sure your soul was in order. Infants died all the time. Most people didn't expect to raise more than half of their children to adulthood. Adults were routinely carried away by disease and illness at comparatively young ages, like Arthur, Henry VIII's brother. Women routinely died in childbirth, which was an extra danger for them. But men were expected to fight in wars. Today, most people expect to live at least "3 score and 10" years and when they don't they are an anomaly. The church provided them with comfort because they were told their real life was in the hereafter, not this life of struggle and pain. But my sympathy always goes to those having to care for those who got sick. They must have known the danger.
Yes, I think the feeling that it was a judgement from God was very prevalent. Like yourself I pity and greatly respect those who cared for the ill. It was truly a very brave thing to do given the odds of catching the illness yourself.
I had a nurse friend who worked on a ward for highly infectious tropical diseases. She had to have a lot of vaccinations again various diseases some of which made her feel unwell for awhile. I thought she was a hero. She was not married or had children so she did not have that worry to consider.
Watching your friends and family die so quickly must have seemed like the end of time. It’s the unknown that’s most frightening. But even if you lived through this, you may not even know anyone who also made it through this horrible time. I’m certainly glad I did not have to go through this.
I know. It would have been awful to be the only survivor from a whole village for instance.
There are 3 points in history when I don't blame anyone for believing it was the literal end of the world - 536-546 AD, the major outbreak of the Black Death, and WW1.
I've always thought that the scapegoating and flagellation would be horrible to witness during the bubonic plague. Like, having experienced the mass death and chaos of a modern pandemic, I think the hysteria and lack of scientific understanding back then would make it even more terrifying. Seeing people whip themselves would make the experience of mass graves & existential dread even more surrealistic and nightmarish.
I have autoimmune issues. I have genetic markers for lupus as well. I was not diagnosed with it because I became asymptomatic (went into remission). When I started this video I had no clue how personal it was going to be for me and my life. Thank you for putting this information out there. My jaw literally fell open when you ended with this research into the genetic legacy of the Black Death. It gives me a new appreciation for my own genetic history. On the one hand, going through portions of my life where I was extremely sick sucks, but it is those genes that allowed me to be here in the first place. It actually sucks less to have those genes knowing that without them my ancestors would have probably died.
To me, the worst thing, aside from watching everyone around me die and wondering if im next would be not knowing anything. Not knowing what really caused it, not knowing how long it would last, not knowing if it would ever end, not knowing if it would come back (which it did). All that and seeing that all the institutions in my life ibtrusted to know these things be proven utterly helpless. The psychological torment of that constant fear must have taken a huge toll on survivors
Yes, I think so too. In an era before modern medicine it must have been even worse than C19. St least we knew what was happening and that a vaccine was coming.
Everybody back then knew what caused the plague--they were just wrong.
To me, all the three parts were worst during the plague in those times, especially lacking in medical care and hospitals. I admire that most people during covid-19 pandemic have to work in hospital in order to save patient's'life from covid-19, facing danger of being infected by covid -19 while we could be safe in the lockdown. I can't imagine the fear of the families at that time ! Great video as usual ! thanks
I've read Benedictow's The Black Death many times. It is a tour-de-force on the subject. It is exceedingly well researched, well written and easy to read. He critiques earlier estimation approaches and explains why he believes they fail. He also cogently argues that the rural population suffered far worse than the fledgling urban population and why.
I remember reading a story stating that fleas that lived on horses could not carry the black death. So if the Black Death comes back buy any old hay burner you can find .
As someone with 99% Irish/English DNA and an autoimmune condition, this makes sense. My immune system is overactive and starts attacking my organs, so I have to take a medication to reduce my immune system's activity. As a consequence, though, I can't fight off very well infections of any kind
I think the hardest part would have been rampant depression and a pervasive negative outlook in society. And if you typically had a positive outlook on life, it would be hard to live amongst people who run around like the sky is falling. Even though it was, weeping and wailing didn’t solve anything and it made it harder for those actually tending to the sick and to continue with the routine of life.
Those that evidently had resistance to the disease and didn’t get sick may have had a very hard time “getting on” once it was all over.
It’s not anything that can be discovered through DNA or examining old bones, but good mental health took a hit for generations.
Jan in Oklahoma.
Yes, I'm sure there was inter-generational trauma actually. That's an excellent point. People will have talked about it for decades to come.
What I find interesting is the impact it had on those who survived. Inter- generational trauma, elevated levels of anxiety, depression, soupision,superstitious beliefs and the effect of having seen the worst of people (with whom you might have had to go on living) must have been hard to endure. And then there must have been feelings of guild, as you belonged to the lucky ones who survived the desaster.
@@HistoryCalling There was and is inter-generational trauma in those who survived WW1and2.I've experienced the effects myself, as I'm the desendent of two generations of people who experienced it.
This is fascinating! I've ordered Dr. Benedictow's book and plan to read his article and the scientific article too. I had sarcoidosis about 20 years ago, so I'm very interested in autoimune diseases. This wasn't a subject that I ever thought of you covering, but it did occur smack in the middle of the period that you often focus on. So glad you chose this topic!
Thanks Bev and I hope you enjoy the book. Yes, I don't get into plague history all that often, but it is fascinating in a horrific kind of way, especially after everything that's happened in the past few years.
@@HistoryCalling Kind of like watching a train wreck. Out here in the West the plague is endemic in prairie dogs and the diagnosis has to be make quickly in order for the disease to be curable by antibiotics. It can also carried by rabbits and cats so we typically have 2 or 3 human deaths a year unfortunately.
Interesting video and very informative. I think the reason why we now don't have Black Death outbreak is because of better hygiene practises. It's the reason why Jewish communities in those times had very little Black Death among them is because they adhered to their strict hygiene laws ❤😊❤
I think the hardest thing about dealing with The Plague (besides the terrible loss of family members and friends) was perfectly summarized in Simon Shama's documentary A History of Britain : ".....it's almost impossible to imagine the utter desolation and terror...the complete collapse of everything you've taken for granted...how do you find bread - now the bakers are all dead?...how do you find a physic [doctor] - now that none of them work?....and at last, how do you find someone to cart away the bodies that have to be disposed of somewhere?....". I originally watched this series over 10 years ago. and I think these lines from the episode about the plague (King Death) really made you think about the horror and confusion that the British Isles (and the rest of Europe, North Africa, and Asia) must have been going through at a time when no one really understood how infectious agents worked or how they were spread.
Yet another brilliant video!! I’m loving the variety you’ve been bringing recently! Thanks for the amazing content! I’m actually mindblown that it’s literally altered our genes!
THANK YOU SO MUCH PATRICK for your very generous donation to the channel. I'm glad you're enjoying the variety. It's always a bit of a risk moving away from the Tudors and Plantagenets (although even those videos flop sometimes).
The disease malaria had similar results to those of the black death - some people were or became immune but the negative side was that immunity to malaria made them susceptible to the disease called sickle cell anemia which is common in some areas but not others and I also once heard that surviving the black death passed on to descendants immunity to Aids but I'm not sure about this last point!
The worst thing, IMO would have been the fear. Not knowing who was going to be next, when my loved ones may get sick or getting sick myself. The fear of the unknown.
Yes, it reminds me of Covid.
I am a lifelong history lover. I have watched many of your videos & have enjoyed them all. Even better, it's nice to watch a video where the presenter actually knows what they're talking about. Keep up the exemplary work.
Now for a Swiftian answer to the question you posed:
I believe that Stand-Up Comedians would have have some rough and lean times during the Plague Years. Conversely, Afterlife Insurance Salesmen probably did brisk business.
As someone who is an autoimmune disease magnet (I have Chron’s Disease, along with two others-and both of my sisters have Lupus)….It makes me wonder if, indeed, WE are paying the price for our ancestors’ survival?…
Good historical research and good scientific research have a lot in common.
Your video mentioning Eyam makes me remember. I took a coach there the other week! Beautiful place. I dropped the group off and went off a nice explore with your video on as a guide!
Goin to watch this right now. Love the topic! :) I'm going to have my wife translate to dumbell level of English of those readings you linked, she's a biochemist. :) I think just watching my loved ones sick & dying would be extremely difficult, and can't do anything about it because everyone in the house is sick & dying. People not sick probably walked in some homes, that were deathly quiet, wondering where a person is, to find everyone in the home dead from the plague.
Thanks Sean. I was surprised to read about how the BD still affects us today, but it seems it really does.
@@HistoryCalling I know this is a deadly serious topic but I DID think of Monty Python & The Holy Grail in that one scene where they had a cart full of dead people & the guy carrying the cart repeatedly said, "Bring out your dead."
Totally understandable response :-)
Just like during COVID, worry about your loved ones would have been the worse thing to deal with. You always come up wit such interesting topics. This one was at the top of the list. Thanks.
Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I just read the research and thought it was fascinating and deserved a video.
Where’s all the Covid dead
Thanks, im now never going to get that analogy about lasagne out of my head ever. Very interesting though so thanks for sharing.
This is super interesting as I have several chronic illnesses linked to a lower immune system. I get everything. I also suffer ME, fibromylgia, endometriosis, and 'complex ibs' aswell as severe anaphylaxis to all nuts...and a heart condition! Doctors can't seem to agree what causes all these things but I've often wondered if it's in my DNA. Mind you immediate family don't have it but cousins of mine do have some of them . We're predominantly Irish. Like you I don't come from a science background but did my BA and MA in Literature-namely medieval and Rensissance so not sure it'd be an easy read for me! I think the hardest part of the plague would be the isolation-seeing all your family/friends die and waiting for death or even worse, surviving and dealing with that trauma. I read one account of a daughter who held her mothers hand, and it 'slipped off like a glove'. Very graphic! Love your content; it keeps me entertained as I'm mainly bedbound sadly and often awake till the wee hours. Xx
I have Lupus and Chrones. And ancestry from Asia, Europe and North Africa. Literally living evidence. I really enjoyed this presentation.
When i was a teen i found a bunch of JAMA magazines in the school library and i found an interesting article about the black plague. It said the plague wouldnt have been so bad if the people of UK had not killed so many cats before the plague started. Apparently it was a form of entertainment to gather a bunch of cats, put them in an iron cage and burn it over a fire while the cats screamed and tried to get out of the cage. They killed thousands of cats that way. Researchers had found a village where only a couple of families were hit by the plague and died. The rest of the villagers were not. One of the houses had only a young cat still a kitten and the other house had an elderly cat. The rest of the villagers had grown cats. (I have no idea how they found that out) the article summary said the cats would have kept down the rat population. But since the witch hunting craze was in full swing and cats were considered witches familiars most of the country was massacring every cat they could.
I have cats and in my neighborhood most everybody has dogs. They feed the dogs outside and that attracts rats. My neighbor had a bunch of hunting dogs and i would eatch the rats come out of the holes they had dug under the porch to help themselves to the dogs food. And the dogs did nothing. They would watch them eat the dogfood. I also watched a neighbor across the street who kept s bag a dogfood on her porch and there eould be a line of rats jumping into the bag and carry the food back to their nest under the porch. My neighbors alway complained of mouse and rat problems in their houses. Since my cats went outside as well as inside i had no problems with vermin. But when the neighbors started poisoning cats because they didnt like pawprints on their cars i stopped letting my cats outside when i lost 2 to poisoning. I have noticed since then the owl population has increased. Even saw an owl in broad daylight land next to a shed , go under the shed and come out with a rat that it carried off. Before i started keeping my cats inside they even would catch snakes. After they were staying inside i found a copperhead next to my front door. I caught it and released it into the woods away from my house. Cats are useful.
Im really picky with history videos, but i dont know what it is about yours but i LOVE them! Never get bored💓
Thank you so much. I hope you continue to enjoy them :-)
I think that, with our own recent "plague" -- COVID -- we have all come closer to being able to understand and relate to how people felt then. The bubonic plague of course claimed victims much quicker, often in the course of a day; with COVID, it was a much longer process. The fear aroused by not knowing how to combat the disease was the same. But at least our scientific knowledge was advanced and we were able to develop the means to understand and fight COVID.
Yes, we were fortunate in many (actually most) ways compared to our ancestors, even though it didn't feel like it at the time.
I agree, I think the black death has left such an echo in history that our responses reacted out of the same fear with the initial outbreak...
I would hardly call a disease with 99% survival rate a plague.
Except the experimental genetic therapies have been shown to not be safe or effective. When they were first rolled out it was promised to prevent transmission and severe infection when that wasn't true. What else did they get wrong?
Read Doomsday Book.
It’s a novel written in the 90s, set in the 2050’s. It’s during a flu epidemic in England and features a time traveller who goes back to the 1348 (by mistake, she is meant to go to 1320) right at the plague hits.
It’s not the best book, I didn’t enjoy the ‘present’ day bits as much but the chapters featuring the plague in the 1300’s were horrific and heartbreaking. I read it recently and with Covid being so recent it adds another layer to it all.
Would be interested to know if there is any research on people without ancestry directly impacted by Black Death on the hospitalisation/ long term impact/ death rates in those communities from things like Covid. Would be interesting to see if these same legacy protections are beneficial in the modern day pandemic scenario.
I can't tell you how lovely it is to listen to history content with an accent that sounds like mine 😊 it's almost like listening to a friend. I'd love for you to make more irish history videos please 😊
Thank you. I'd love to do more history from home too, but my Irish history videos don't tend to do so well. I do have a few of them though in an Irish history playlist if you want to check it out.
Really interesting. I have to note that myself, my daughter, and granddaughter and grandson have auto-immune problems. Now I know why.
I love, love, love your channel so much. Please never stop creating this amazing content. Your voice is so calming. You deserve so much more attention.
Honestly the first thing I thought when I saw this was my ancestors survived…otherwise I would not be alive.
Highly interesting and informative video. Thank you.
I personally think the helplessness must have been worst.
Thank you. Yes, it must have been awful.
When Britain was invaded by the Yamnaya 4500 years ago they replaced the Neolithic farmers who built Stonehenge by 93%. This population turnover was aided by a plague, the first recorded in history. There are 3 different types of plagues and the black death was actually the least harmful of the 3. Plagues seem to come in off the steppe so my theory is that the Yamnaya first got hit by the plague and recovered faster so when they came into European lands the Neolithic farmers where still suffering from it badly which allowed them to take over.
Excellent presentation and facts.
I belive many ancient cultures perished,
eliminated from overwhelming disease.
Shunned and forgotten for eons.
Explorers have discovered ancient sites,
then the surrounding people, have zero.
Why, how would they not know?
Likely 100's of previous civilization's.
Dig deeper. Cosmic dust never stops.
What a fascinating video! I cannot wait to read those papers. Your research is always so thorough!
I also wonder about the outbreak of the Black Death in the US-that’s right! For those of us in the US who don’t know, San Francisco had a huge outbreak in 1900. Really interesting history there, too. A lot of politics and a rush to declare the plague eradicated, SF said it was “over” in 1904. But, the whole earthquake thing happened and people focused on that and then plague came back (it never left). They found it in squirrels, too.
Since, it has been transmitted to many different wildlife species, like bobcats and prairie dogs and more.
There continue to be confirmed cases of plague every year in the US. It’s so crazy to think of it still going on today and our ancestors genes still fighting through us all these centuries later.
Thanks, History Calling, for showing us all the massive impact of events so long ago.
Very interesting. Good research and no background music, thank you. New subscriber.
The narrator has an interesting accent. Is it somewhere in Ireland? I could be way off, but it reminds me of my visit to Dublin decades ago.
Thank you very much and welcome aboard. Your instincts are correct. I'm from Northern Ireland :-)
@@HistoryCalling Now I finally know why your accent isn't the English I learned in school. However the accent - live long and prosper. Greetings from Germany.
I'm glad Scarbo 22 didn't say it is an English accent!😊 Regards from Canada 🇨🇦
In the US, there have been 496 human cases in the last 50 years, with only 14 deaths in 117 cases for the last 20 years. It's easily treated until late disease progression in the highly vulnerable.
when you mentioned having genes that make people more prone to autoimmune diseases, my mom (who has lupus) and I (who has Crohn's) did a double take!
Wow! Gross! Yet so informative! I have often wondered why certain illnesses impact one side of the family, and not the other. ☠️ If I lived during the black plague, I would be most alarmed by the fear that I might be next
Nice summary, thanks. The psychological impact would have been significant and would probably have echoed through the subsequent generations. Most people suffer from something called an existential crisis at some point in their life. In simple terms that's what happens when we try to come to terms with the brevity of the human lifespan and the need to feel we have actually achieved something significant in our lives. That can in turn lead you into something called 'existential dread' which has many of the characteristics of depression but notably a tendency to dwell on the elements of your life that did not go well. (Incidentally clinical depression is not feeling sad, it is more to do with feeling there is no point in life with similar effects on the individual to a 'depression' in the economy). Hence where places were hit repeatedly it is a fair bet that a lot of people lost faith in life itself and became 'hopeless'. Those who were parents would not then be able to do that job well (essentially demonstrating to the young what a healthy supportive relationship looks like and what attitude to have to improve your chances of experiencing such a thing). Poor parenting has been shown to cause a range of undesirable effects, for example according to work done by Zhang that includes greed (facilitated by difficulties in forming supportive relationships) and leaves the resulting adult susceptible to a range of issues both physical and mental (see Martin Seligman's work on that, he is the poster boy for the field of positive psychology (what does a healthy person look like psychologically) - He has several lectures on RUclips, search for Seligman Happiness). So on top of grief, issues with supply chains, suspicion, conspiracy theories and all the rest of it a lot of people would be emotionally disabled. That's a grim prospect.
Losing your family would be the worst, plus the uncertainty of the future.
years ago i recieved plague 1 and plague 2 shots in the military. i remember it really kills all your energy for about a week.
Oh, that sounds unpleasant. Still, I guess it's better than being killed completely by the plague forever :-)
Ummm...plague is indigenous to the state in which I grew up...the prairie dogs carry it everywhere in the deserts of the Southwest US. As a healthcare professional I was taught how to recognize it in patients. We have good drugs to deal with bubonic, moderate to deal with the respiratory forms and very poor to deal with the form of hemorrhagic plague. Also, this makes total sense in that: people with Northern European ancestry tend to be less susceptible to viral illnesses in general but tend to have very overactive immune systems that cause an increase in everything from allergies and asthma to long term inflammatory illnesses...Such an interesting theory...hope to see more research in the future on this.
I love your videos and learning about the past. I try to click as fast as possible when you upload. Your videos teach me so much and I’m so fascinated by the past. Plus, I greatly enjoy the lilt of your accent/voice.
Thank you so much. That's very kind of you to say :-)
Wow, what an interesting video. I've just subscribed to your channel and have watched a few videos and find your clarity and information really interesting. I also really like the way you present your videos. Keep up the great work 👍
I think the worst thing would be to have been locked up, condemned, when you were ill and no one else in the household was. But then you watched, as you were slowly dying, that you have given your family members a death sentence and watched with your dying breath them succumbing to the same symptoms you were, awaiting the same fate.
It´s a bit like what happened to many in the beginning of the pandemic of our time. Covid19.
Medical history is a fascinating topic. If you are interested in this I can’t recommend the book “Survival of the Sickest” enough. I read this about ten years ago so I’m not sure if it’s still in print
I haven't heard of the book, but it's got a great title.
My twelfth-great grandfather, a Church of England priest died of plague in 1576.
Just found your channel….WOW! I’m hooked!
Family members all around one person passing on is the worst I can imagine. The feeling of loneliness or guilt would be overwhelming.
I know. As much as people wanted to survive, I'm sure if they lost all their loved ones it felt like a hollow victory.
Great video. Thank you. The painting used in your thumbnail and throughout the video is great. Does anybody know its title?
Worse thing about being alive during the plague was lack of sophisticated medical care.
Nowadays hospitals can do blood tests, or other tests to monitor progress, advise and prevent the disease from spreading.
Yes, it must have been awful not knowing what was happening or being able to combat it.
But Covid19 spread around the globe like a wildfire anyway. If it had been the plaque nowadays-our society would probably had been gone. Because of the modern travels.
Loving your video on the black death
Thank you. It was something a bit different for me (though I have looked at plagues before, but not very often).
Hi, awesome live history video I enjoyed it have a great day see you next video. How are you? I'm doing well
Thanks Michelle. I'm good thanks. Enjoying some good weather here in NI. You're in Canada aren't you? If so, I hope you're safe from the fires and smoke I've been seeing on the news.
Hi HC, fascinating presentation. I’ve never heard of a connection between the Black Death and our current DNA. So again you’ve gone the extra mile to bring new detail from a much discussed subject.
It must have been terrifying for the people back then due to their lack of understanding of the illness, how it spread and how it could be treated.
Loved your “History Matters” comment at the end. 👍🏻
Sorry for the late comments as I’ve been away and only just caught up.
Thanks again.
Ha! I have often called myself a plague-ridden wench when I am experiencing annoying symptoms of my autoimmune disease. I didn’t know how close to right I was.
Now you can tell people it's all the Black Death's fault 😂
@@HistoryCalling Haha, exactly!
The, I think, Delta-32 gene mutation is what allowed people to either recover, or escape infection altogether, depending on whether you have one or two copies of it.
I believe that I have two copies, as I've never had a viral or bacterial infection in my life.
I'm 64, never had chicken pox, etc, though children around me did. The vaccine for chickenpox wasn't in widespread use until my late teens.😅
Gosh, I wish I had genes that tough. Chickenpox was so itchy!
It's a strange fact, but canids don't get plague, not dogs, wolves, coyotes, etc. They do mount a vigorous immune response, and their antibody titers can be high. The CDC gives hunters test strips, which they ask them to dip in the blood of any coyotes that they kill. With date and place information, the CDC can test the straps for antibody titer to keep track of plague in the wild animal population.
I literally just commented about delta-32! I believe it offers similar protection against HIV. I dunno if I have any genes with delta-32, & I did suffer through chickenpox, but I have a kickass immune system- even working in disability services for 10yrs, where we're exposed to sooo many illnesses & staff constantly get sick, I virtually never did- & when I found out that mitochondrial haplotype H protects against infection, I was like "I bet I'm H". Turns out I am, but to be fair, so are 45% of people of European descent, precisely because of this effect. I'd heard the hypothesis that there was an evolutionary benefit to "H", & it was brilliant to learn that scientists had found it.
Like you I didnt get any childhood illnesses despite my siblings getting them. I was diagnosed with auto immune - rheumatoid arthritis 10 years ago.
Never caught a cold?
Really fascinating says one with an auto immune disease of Celtic descent xxx
Yes, it was a fantastic bit of research. I suppose we should be grateful that our ancestors didn't die otherwise we would never have been born, but it is a bummer that it's led to more people with auto-immune disorders.
My heck, that was good. The link with autoimmune disease was a real revelation for me. As far as living through the Black Death, I cannot imagine being exposed to such frequent trauma, the loss of loved ones and others, the urban and rural decay, the pervasive sights and smells of death and putrefaction. Would I have clung to religious faith , or doubted in God? Become more spiritual, or more materialistic?
Thanks Terry. Yes, I don't know how I would have responded either. It must have felt like the end of the world.
A very thorough job! Facinating. Never saw an actual bubo before, just heard about them. Sometimes genetics suck. Thanks for a great video!
Thank you. Yeah, some of the medical images I looked at during research were awful. These were just the ones I thought I could show.
@@HistoryCalling you did an excellent job.
The best part is that I’ve read it took the sick off quickly - within a couple of days.
People would have been much more acclimatised to death, than we are now, and truly believed that life carried on afterwards.
Love these fascinating videos that show insights into how the communities lived and faced adversities.
The worst thing would've been the belief that prayer would help the worthy, and the general lack of knowledge about disease. Causing humans to seek other humans to place the blame in. That many priests would've made ceremonies equating the disease to sin, and that it was a punishment from God. That some priests would've despaired themselves, not able to keep the communitie's spirits up, but instead would've spread the belief that this was the end of the world.
That's an extra level of mental anguish that people of today don't have to suffer from, but people back then had to deal with: The constant thoughts of hell and damnation, admist all that death. Seeing all the usual quarantine actions suddenly not working, and blaming each other for the seemingly supernatural way the disease was able to flee containment.
Having to wonder if all that death was caused by the sin of everyone around you?
I suppose it depended on one's outlook. I'm sure feeling that they were being punished for awful for some, but I'm equally sure that religion and prayer brought a sense of comfort to many others.
The field of science is called epigenetics. How external events that affect people (famines, war, pestilence) have an effect on DNA. It can take as little as 2 generations to change the DNA. I'll find the link and post it.
Such an interesting video! Love learning about how genetics can impact us still 100s years later!
Thank you. Yes, I found it fascinating as well. I read about the research and just thought 'I have to do a video on that!'
You're probably already covered this in another video I'm not sure but, you mentioned it came from rats and fleas what year did they figure that out? And when they did figure it out did they try to eradicate the pests? And, in nursing school we were told it was never proven to have been in the lungs. Obviously because they can't study the lungs of a long-dead corpse and come up with a hundred percent accuracy. Also if you survive the plague, what were the side effects afterward? Of course I think there were beasts cars from the big infected cyst, but get the blackened hands and feet rot and die? Also I think an interesting addition would be what kind of medicines or treatment were they giving to the people? It would be interesting to know by region simply because it's possible one of the plants or one of the remedies actually help people survive. You know like some plants are antibacterial? I just love every one of your videos thanks again this was great
The worst thing for people of the time would be lack of knowledge of what was decimating their population. Apart from the immediate death and misery, a sideline to the disease would be religious or 'magical' group insanity, which may have led to the practice of religious and social persecution in later times. Lack of knowledge creates its own terrors.
What isn't mentioned is a common belief at the time that such a terrible plague, taking such an unbelievably high toll of human life, and causing so much suffering in the process, must have been sent by God to punish humankind. People must have thought that the end times were truly near. How terrifying is that? (I recommend the late historian Barbara Tuchman's book on the 14th century, "A Distant Mirror," particularly its very detailed chapter on the Black Death, using many quotes from people living--- and dying --- at the time).😮
Alleles? I kind of lost the video once I heard that word I have no idea what it means is it something with genetics or some kind of antibody test? Fascinating video thank you. I just never heard the word as an American. I think you're a we would say a part of the gene was changed in plague victims that survived and they passed it to their kids. But I still don't know because I don't know how to spell it I don't think. Please clarify thank you
Just this week I read “Pars vite et revient tard” by Fred Vargas. It’s a detective and the plague plays an important role in the story. But the murderer makes a mistake, he makes his victims black with coal, suggesting they died from the plague.
And that’s how the detective knows there are two people involved. One that knows everything about the plague, and the actual killer that doesn’t. Because people didn’t turn black.
And so I new also that they didn’t turn black. Nice video.