March 26: The 1630 bubonic plague in Milan

Milan, and the rest of Europe, experienced several previous epidemics that basically wiped out half of the population in the middle ages. I want to talk a bit about the last major "bubonic plague" that hit MIlan in 1629. It was a bacterial infection rather than viral, and at that time they had no idea of what caused either type, and no effective cures. They did understand that it was propagated from person to person and they enacted quarantines. They thought they had it licked by the following year ... and they couldn't resist the temptation to celebrate the "Carnevale" in March 1630. The plague came back, and then back again in 1631. In the absence of a vaccine, and other strong measures COVID-19 will probably return as well (that's also Fauci's opinion). We are lucky that COVID is much less deadly (the plague killed from 30 to 90% of infected). Milan lost about 60K out of a population of 130K. I first learned about the plague from reading the classic Italian novel "I Promessi Sposi" ("The Betrothed, by Alessandro Manzoni). The plague served as backdrop to the novel, which made the reality of life during the plague much more vivid than historic accounts. What struck me most while reading it was the irrationality that took over. For instance people (called "untori") were accused of intentionally spreading the plague by pouring special grease ("unto") on walls. That meant that innocent people were accused of being "untori" and killed. What really bothers me about our situation now is how prevalent irrationality still is, in spite of all the science that is available. Reality is being ignored at the highest levels with "wishful-thinking", "whatabout-the-flu-ism", and general uwillingness to look at facts and to learn from what's been happening in the rest of the world. No "untori" are being killed, BUT MEDICAL PERSONNEL ARE... and many, many people will be, needlessly so. I feel like we are not doing much better than they did in the middle ages, and this is simply mind boggling and tragic. Going back to the plague, note that doctors (first figure) had PPE! That was 400 years ago and it included a robe, glasses, and a long beak that was filled with aromatic herbs as a filter, and... a stick that they used to keep people at a safe distance! The mask with the beak became later on one the iconic masks of the Venetian carnival (second picture). (Since this post could be interpreted as "political" I need to point out that it was written on my personal computer and on my own time)

 


 
 
 

 
 

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