• FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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    3 months ago

    Also, the Black Plague has not been eradicated. It still exists in small mammals such as gophers and rats, and a strain could potentially mutate to humans again, although changes in human hygiene have made blood to blood infections less common.

    The reason it seemed to disappear is because the more infectious and fatal strains spread to and killed off every susceptible human at a rate that could not support its propagation to new healthy humans.

    • protist@retrofed.com
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      3 months ago

      I assume you mean well, but this is serious “confidently incorrect” energy. Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes bubonic plague, never changed to become less virulent and can still affect humans to this day. It has been killing a ton of humans for thousands of years and was still killing thousands of people at a time in localized outbreaks up until we discovered the antibiotics that cure it.

      Also, it’s transmitted through the fleas on small mammals, not through the mammals themselves. Flea transmission is far and away the primary vector. Human to human transmission has always been pretty rare, since it can only be transmitted between humans through contact with bodily fluids, similar to how HIV spreads.

    • scytale@piefed.zip
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      3 months ago

      the more infectious and fatal strains spread to and killed off every susceptible human at a rate that could not support its propagation to new healthy humans

      Plague Inc. has taught me how to be more effective and prevent this from happening.

      • bryndos@fedia.io
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        3 months ago

        Evolve Necrosis FTW. Gotta have corpse-to-living tx. The real problem with plague inc. is the motivation though the disease is likely dead one turn after humanity.

        This is where we need a conspiracy theory that all complex life is just an intricate biological shell/animate castle-o-saurus, designed to protect and nourish a few self replicating acids, with defense mechanisms to try to kill any interlopers that seek to replicate faster without dissuading anything sexually compatible.

        • FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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          3 months ago

          Sounds like the novel Parasite Eve which inspired a movie and later videogame series. Basically it piggy backs on the concept of Mitochondrial Eve wherein Mitocondria evolved separately from all other cellular life and exists as a symbiotic organism.

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Its bacteria not a virus. Our hygiene is the biggest reason it is “gone”. No longer throwing shit in the streets.