Didier fassin and marion fourcade have assembled an eminent team of scholars from across the social sciences, conducting research on six continents, to reflect on the multiple ways the coronavirus has entered, reshaped, or exacerbated existing trends and structures in every part of the globe. Before analyzing the social, political, and economic consequences of the black death in the endeavour to draw some lessons from the current covid pandemic, it may be worthwhile to understand the nature, expanse and the origins of these two health emergencies across the world.
We compare across these four major disease events the rates of infection, likelihood of dying, and available diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines (table 1) For most of history, infectious diseases have killed many more people than famine or war, and in 2019 they still caused one death in four. We examine the historical impact of these largely unchecked pathogens upon populations and economies.
