Oct 29, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is nowhere near to the deadliest pandemic in history… yet
November’s on the brink and we are into the 9th month of the COVID-19 pandemic that is still ravaging across the globe. While number of cases around the world have risen to 44 million, almost the entire globe has seen restrictions being lifted and the world going back to their normal lives, of course, maintaining and practicing the social protocols provided by the WHO and the different national institutions of countries. The world hasn’t seen a pandemic of this intensity for a century. While there have been several outbreaks of several diseases in the last two decades, they have been limited to particular areas of the globe while the most recent being the Ebola Virus outbreak in sub-saharan Africa from 2015–2016. Many experts believe that the Ebola Virus epidemic is still very much persistent in some countries of sub-saharan Africa. The Swine Flu epidemic almost had the entire world its grip back in 2009 but it was contained successfully and mind you, it was way deadlier than the SARS-Cov-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). A family member of the same virus causes another disease called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Like the swine flu, this disease could’ve caused a pandemic back in the 2000s if it had not been contained and it has a mortality rate of 10–15%. For comparison, COVID-19 has a mortality rate of around 1–2%. But the only pandemic that could match the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic occurred way back in 1918 known as the Spanish Flu epidemic caused by the H1N1 virus and it thought to be originated from birds. It infected around 500 million people across the globe and resulted in around 17 million to 50 million deaths worldwide across four successive waves and ended in 1920. But even this pandemic is nothing compared to the deadliest pandemic in human history.
For visualising the deadliest pandemic in human history, we’ll be going back 700 hundred years to 1345. The pandemic was so devastating that it has been given a more unique and scarier name: “The Black Death”. Let us understand what causes it. The disease is known as Bubonic Plague and is caused by a bacteria that is spread from fleas that live on rats. The rats would occassionally be transported across countries via ships. The fleas would then jump to humans and transmit the bacteria by bites. Even with treatment, the bubonic plague has a mortality rate of around 10% and 30–100% if left untreated. Well, in the 1340s, no one had access to antibiotics because they weren’t developed so the plague caused mayhem around the world (mostly Europe). There have been two significant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague in the past. One around 6th century AD and another in 1347.
The First Plague Pandemic
The first plague pandemic originated in 541 AD. The plague originated in central Asia and was carried to Suez near Egypt. The Byzantine empire had just conquered the Mediterrenean and was on the verge of uniting with constantinople when at the worst possible time, the Bubonic Plague originated (you could call that rotten luck). From there on, the plague ravaged across Europe. It is estimated that the plague killed around 5,000 people per DAY in the city of Constantinople alone. Procopius, the court historian of Justinian I wrote about the symptoms: The infected would experience a sudden onset of fever, cough and general feeling of malaise. The bacterium would then spread to the infected person’s lymphatic system and would give rise to the classic ‘buboes’ that would appear around the groin, armpit and neck followed by the appearance of gangrene of the victim’s fingers, hips and toes that would cause extreme pain due to the live decomposition the skin. The pandemic then went on to kill a third of the city’s population resulting in around 25–100 million deaths around the world during the 200 years that it lasted. The plague had a devastating effect on the Byzantine empire and led to the demise of Justinian’s reign. Here’s a map of Byzantine empire before and after the plague:
The plague wiped out around half of the population of Europe and it took Europe nearly 5 centuries to recover from the damage. But this pandemic was succeeded by a deadlier plague pandemic in 1347.
The Black Death
We’re in the month 10 of the COVID-19 pandemic and people have already started losing their minds. Being trapped inside their own homes for around 60 days at the start of the pandemic really made people want to go out and enjoy their normal lives. People hoped that the lockdowns imposed in almost all the nations would quickly end the pandemic but this couldn’t be farther from reality. As lockdowns were lifted, people were asked to follow all the safety protocols such as wearing masks, social distancing and washing hand frequently. This created havoc into people’s normal lives. But imagine a pandemic that goes on for around 200 years. The first plague pandemic started in 541 AD and officially ended around 800 AD. So this suggests that there were some people who lived out their entire lives in a pandemic and hence a year doesn’t sound too bad now.
The Black Death only lasted for around 5 years but created much more mayhem than the First Plague Pandemic of the 6th Century AD. Brace yourselves for what’s ahead isn’t good.
Evidence suggests that the second plague pandemic originated in Central Asia, more precisely in the city of Wuhan of the Hubei Province in China. YES, coincidentally the SARS-CoV-2 originated from Wuhan as well. And just like the first plague pandemic, the plague was carried by infected fleas by ships to the entire Mediterranean and Eurasia. From then on, the plague ravaged quickly spreading across the entire Europe and peaking from 1347–1351. Like the COVID-19 pandemic, the plague would strike in waves too. Since it was spread by fleas, the disease was more of a summer pandemic and would virtually disappear in the winters. That explains the reason it would take so many years for the pandemic to end. The ships carrying rats were brought to Kaffa (one of the busiest ports of that time) and when the rats died, the fleas needed a new host and hence, they would jump on to humans. Like the previous pandemic, the city of Constantinople was very hard hit by the plague and it presumably wiped out 60% of the city’s population at that time. From there on, the plague spread to Marseille in France and from there to Catalonia in Spain. From then on, like dominoes, the plague knocked out every nation in Europe in a span of just 14 days. The plague arrived significantly late into United Kingdom because of the British Channel and winters. Inevitably, it grasped the entire island in the summer of 1349. The symptoms of the plague were no different from the first plague and the mortality rate was same as well. Below is a map to help you visualise the extent of the pandemic:
Some countries and cities were insanely hard-hit by the plague while some of them weren’t really affected by the plague. It isn’t clear as to why this happened but some cities like Florence saw 60% of their population dying. There wasn’t a family in Florence in which at least 2 people did not die. Some other countries were hard hit by the plague as well. Germany and Spain saw 80% of their population dying, 75% of England died out and surprisingly, Germany’s neighbouring country, Poland did fairly well which saw only 10% of her population dying. Iceland and Finland are the only nations, that we know of to have been untouched by the plague mostly because of their tiny population and less contact to foreign countries.
The plague was so devastating that 1 in 4 people died. It affected women, men and children equally. Researchers say that when the plague finally ended, it reduced the population Europe by 60%. The estimated population of Europe at that time was 80 million and according to the statistics, 50 million people died reducing the population to just 30 million. This is truly a mind-bending statistic but even more insanely, around 150–200 million people died around the world. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic absolutely devastated the entire continent continent of Europe. Once again, the pandemic led to the demise of the most powerful empires at that time and pushed the novelty into poverty. The immense loss of population led to the shortage of labour around the continent and hence, at the worst possible time, just after the plague ended, a famine followed. Fortunately, the famine was short-term but cities like Florence did not gain their population back until the 1800s! The scenes after the plague were depressing as rapid inflation and reduced wages of workers led to clashes and riots. Finally, after 7 long years of suffering, the pandemic ended in 1354. The great catastrophe it caused isn’t forgotten, even after 700 years. Several pandemics followed the Black Death but they were not even close to the devastation caused by the Black Death. This just shows that however mighty humans think of themselves, it is always a microscopic organism that gives humanity a reality check on their vulnerability.
In comparison to the Black Death (30–100% mortality rate), COVID-19 has a mortality rate of just 1–2% which can be as low as 0.2–0.3% once more data is available. Nonetheless, it is way more dangerous than the flu and people should continue to practice safety until an effective vaccine is rolled out. However, a historical turning point as well as a great catastrophe, The Black Death of 1347–1354 will remain unmatched.
