My understanding has always been that plague graves should not be opened. Therecwere a lot of graves & they are found across Europe from time to time, but I always thought they were marked & covered-up ASAP. I know the bacterium should be harmless, but can we take the chance.
Was about to say that. It's treatable (tetracycline, I think), that doesn't mean it's harmless or easy. Btw, the plague is still around, and afaik, the strains that decimated Europe are the same that are around now, it's just that we are the descendants of those who we're not quite as susceptible as those who died.
onespeedguy | 12 hours ago
thanks, fascinating article!
TheBoneIdler | 5 hours ago
My understanding has always been that plague graves should not be opened. Therecwere a lot of graves & they are found across Europe from time to time, but I always thought they were marked & covered-up ASAP. I know the bacterium should be harmless, but can we take the chance.
Didsterchap11 | 4 hours ago
I mean tbf i cant imagine the black death would stand a chance against modern antibiotics, dangerous as they could be its treatable.
MostView8191 | 2 hours ago
The bubonic plague has never gone away. There are always a handful of outbreaks every year
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/outbreaks-under-monitoring-in-2026/outbreaks-under-monitoring-week-2-week-ending-11-january-2026
Last year at Lake Tahoe https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2025-08-25/the-plague-reappeared-in-california
If you Google the bubonic plague, you'll get a bunch of news sources and academic research
Mitologist | an hour ago
Was about to say that. It's treatable (tetracycline, I think), that doesn't mean it's harmless or easy. Btw, the plague is still around, and afaik, the strains that decimated Europe are the same that are around now, it's just that we are the descendants of those who we're not quite as susceptible as those who died.