Does anyone know if FenceFurniture is ok?
He has not posted for two days, which seems a little unusual.
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Does anyone know if FenceFurniture is ok?
He has not posted for two days, which seems a little unusual.
Trying to put coronavirus in perspective. Total confirmed cases passing 1,350,000 and virus deaths almost 75,000.
When the world population was much less than present, the Great Bubonic Plague spread though Eurasia killing an estimated 75 - 200 million people peaking between 1347 and 1351.
One common theory was that the plague was spread by miasmas, and that to prevent infection you had to filter out those gases.
Attachment 471095
Attachment 471093
Those beaks apparently were filled with fragrant flower petals, spices and herbs to filter out the dangerous miasmas and smells.
Now I would hate to offend Bob by suggesting that one could incorporate a sachel of fragrant herbs, spices and herbs in a mask made from his budgie smugglers.
And the Plague kept returning repeatedly right up into the 17th Century. Some of my family history gives me a further perspective on the sheer scale of those pandemics.
Basel in Switzerland was hit very hard by successive returns of the Plague there in the sixteenth century. My ancestor, Adam Bodenstein, was a professor of medicine at Basel University and he died himself of the Plague in 1577 in the same year that he published his theory on how to treat it in his Herrlicher Philosophischer rhatschlag zu curirn Pestilentz. His first wife, Esther Weiss, and many of their children had died in the 1564 Plague as had his father, Andreas Bodenstein, before him in the 1541 Plague. His father had succumbed to the Plague while ministering to those who were afflicted with it. Up to half of the population of Basel is thought to have perished in some Plague years. Fortunately for me one of his daughters survived the Basel plagues, otherwise I wouldn't be here...:)
Understanding the causes of the 'Pestilence' and how to avoid and treat it was one of the great challenges of the early modern era, but obviously my ancestors interest in finding a cure was not purely driven by academic interest. Despite the best efforts of the medical profession in the 16th century, their theories about the Plague and how to treat it were completely wrong, as was most of their thinking about disease. It would be another three centuries before scientists like Jenner and Pasteur developed the first vaccines and the germ theory of disease became established to replace the 'miasma' theory.
No doubt my ancestor would have donned one of those scary beak outfits while treating Plague patients. If you didn't die of the Plague itself the fright you would receive from having a doctor approaching you with that outfit on and issuing exotic smells was probably enough!
Those masks may become quite fashionable again :)
I'm curios. With the masks and the infusions they put in them, they would have been guesswork, but that guesswork must have been from knowledge built upon.
Were there records of the concoctions used?
I read just then about pneumonic plague on Wikipedia.
I thought that if y.pestis were the cause, there must have been a carrier, either people or animals.... if those concoctions had some sort of astringent effect at deterring fleas?......
Imagine, like NeilS' families experience, of being hit again and again and again and again. Life must have been lived fulsomely every day one received!*
* then again, there were the vigorous... efforts... of re-population required ;)
Doubt it. They though it came through the air hence the masks. And the plethora of pefumieres.
Hey interesting graph here for COVID19 deaths.
Attachment 471117
Small numbers, and although more men are dying from COVID19 than women, its interesting to see the majority of men are dying in their usual age range 80-89 but the majority of women during are dying between 70-79 which is about 15 years younger than usual.
The reason so few men are dying in their 90s is probably because there's not many men left in that cohort compared to women.
[QUOTE=BobL;2181720
The reason so few men are dying in their 90s is probably because there's not many men left in that cohort compared to women.[/QUOTE]
Oh. And I thought it was because man flu is so much worse than the flu that afflicts women.
:wink:
Regards
Paul
OK, finally out.
https://www.doherty.edu.au/uploads/c...h_appendix.pdf
It is very clear based on this modelling why the strict social distancing measures were adopted.
And why it is not good to a 70+ yr old..... :C
No. But there may be some reflection of her sentiments there and indeed those of most women. :wink:
The irony here is that usually, and I do have to stress usually, I am not afflicted with the flu or colds etc. However last year I did get a flu or more likely a bad cold (we chuck the "flu" term around a little carelessly) I was out for a few days. This followed SWMBO with her "flu", which persisted for more than three weeks. I am still 24 years old and bullet proof. I just don't look that way anymore! :( .(I have far fewer days off sick than my colleagues at work, who are all younger. :cool:)
Regards
Paul