November 12, Our New Plague

November 13, 2021

 November 12, Our New Plague

 

Are anti-vaxxers causing the most recent Covid surge,

Along with Red State governors and their mask mandate purge?

DeSantis, Abbott, Tucker Carlson: all picked Covid’s side.

Will history show that their actions caused mass homicide?

 

They’re crying, “Freedom!” (both to sicken and to spread disease.)

They’re not the Plague’s Yersinia; they’re Black Death’s rats and fleas. (1)

They’re vectors helping to keep Covid 19 on a roll

And helping every day to add to Covid’s gruesome toll.

 

The Black Death spread through Europe in the 14th century.

Near half the population died; there was no therapy.

Yersinia killed high and low, the peasant and his lord.

The paupers, princes, bishops, all deserted by the Lord.

 

But now it’s 2021 and we can make vaccines.

We’ve isolated Covid and we’ve sequenced all its genes.

Which means our doctors understand how we can stop its spread.

So, why does Covid 19 Delta still pile up the dead?

 

In 1350, there was mostly ignorance to blame,

Though ignorance still works, misinformation’s joined the game.

And, even worse, disinformation helps disease persist. (2)

And stubbornness, a common trait, means facts might be dismissed.

 

So, all these factors spread disease as ignorance trumps fact.

And politics has entered in: reality hijacked.

So, Covid 19 benefits; left free to replicate

In all those stubborn people who refuse to vaccinate.

 

  • The Bubonic Plague, the “Black Death,” spread through Europe from about 1347 to 1351 through shipping ports and along trade routes. Its cause was determined to be Yersinia Pestis, a bacillus first isolated in 1894 by Alexandre Yersin.  Yersinia infected rats, which were bitten by fleas, which themselves became infected.  When fleas bit humans, they caused what we call the plague, which was about 90% fatal.  It may have killed half of Europe’s population.  Outbreaks continued for hundreds of years.  Isaac Newton supposedly formulated his concept of gravity in 1665, while at home because Cambridge was closed due to an outbreak of plague.
  • “Misinformation” is a mistake. “Disinformation” is a deliberate lie.