
The Great Plague of Marseille - whalesalad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_Marseille
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null4bl3
"Powerful city merchants wanted the silk and cotton cargo of the ship for the
great medieval fair at Beaucaire and pressured authorities to lift the
quarantine"

So they also struggled with wealthy people bending the rules to their will
even back then. The same is true today with large parts of the forces behind
the "reopen" movement in the US.

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11thEarlOfMar
And the wealthy class of Wuhan had to have their New Year banquet.

[https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3049173/coro...](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3049173/coronavirus-10-new-
cases-confirmed-30-more-suspected-wuhan-after)

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speedgoose
You should read the French article if you can read French. It contains a lot
more information.

[https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peste_de_Marseille_(1720)](https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peste_de_Marseille_\(1720\))

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SpicyLemonZest
This kind of comparison strikes me as generally unproductive and toxic to the
discourse. What useful parallels are there between a disease with 1% mortality
that we aim to control through public health measures, and a disease with 50%
mortality that could not be controlled through public health measures?

~~~
LatteLazy
You're not wrong but... A disease with 50% mortality in an age with a 50%
child death rate compared to a disease with 1%ish mortality in an age with
(here at least) 0.01% child mortality. Sort of comparable...

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jwilber
100,000 deaths from the Bubonic Plague in Marseille.

100,000 deaths from COVID-19 in America today.

Of course, the two have vastly different populations, so 100k in Marseille
speaks to a much larger fatality rate than covid19 (obviously, it’s the
plague!). But it really shines a light on how poorly the US has done/is doing
about COVID19. And the President golfs.

Most poignant part about the article:

“ While economic activity took only a few years to recover, as trade expanded
to the West Indies and Latin America, it was not until 1765 that the
population returned to its pre-1720 level.”

~~~
umvi
> But it really shines a light on how poorly the US has done/is doing about
> COVID19

How, exactly, does a plague that killed 55% of the population of a city "shine
a light" on how poorly the USA specifically is handling a disease that has
killed (currently) <0.1% of its population?

Also, the bit about the president golfing seems like flamebait. I bet if you
went digging you could find instances of Obama taking a vacation or otherwise
relaxing following Hurricane Katrina.

~~~
saghm
> I bet if you went digging you could find instances of Obama taking a
> vacation or otherwise relaxing following Hurricane Katrina.

Kind of surprised this needs to be said, but Hurricane Katrina occurred in
2005; Bush was still president then, not Obama.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina)

~~~
umvi
My mistake.

<insert disaster/crisis> then, it doesn't matter. You can always criticize the
president for <golfing/taking a vacation/relaxing> when you think they should
be doing something else.

