Black Death VS SARS

By Steven 7-3

Black Death

What is it?

The Black Death was a widespread contagious and infectious disease, also called the bubonic plague that happened between the time period 1347 and 1353

SARS, also known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was also a widespread airborne, contagious virus that first occurred in 2003 and thought to be an animal virus, but not yet confirmed.

Killed: 50 million

Infected: 50 million

SARS

What is it?

Number of people killed, infected

Number of people killed, infected

Killed: more than 700

Infected: 8000

Symptoms:

Swelling, external bleeding (blood coming out of nostrils, eyes, mouths), internal bleeding, fever, pain, diarrhea, death, etc.


Symptoms:

Coughs, fever, pneumonia, and respiratory failure, death, etc.

Origins: 

China, possibly Europe as well. We don’t exactly know where it originated.

Origins:

Animals, perhaps bats. Part of the group “Coronavirus”. We don't exactly know where it came from.

How it spread: 

People, food, water, animals, etc.

This disease was able to spread so quickly becasue it was comomon adn most found in food; bread, rice, etc. In addition, everybody who ate food became infected with it.

How it spread:

People-coughs, contacts, sneeze, it is also airborne, so air also counts. It stays in the air for 3-5 min max, then it will not be as dangerous. This disease was able to spread quickly because it's very contagious and also semi-airborne. It also stayed on many surfaces including door handles, phones, seats, etc. It remained on many public surfaces causing people to get infected.

The black death mostly infected Europe and some parts of Asia as well.

Areas of Infection:

SARS 2003 was a global crisis that affected Asia the most as well as United States, Oceania, Europe, Latin America.

Areas of Infection:

How this disease affected humans:

This crisis was in a different age than the black plague. This crisis happened in the modern-economy age(2000s). When this virus occurred, many people were out of work due to the issue of the company being closed or forced to close by the government. Many people had no income in terms of money, so they couldn't support a living and had a really rough time. Many restaurants and malls became bankrupt because they still have to pay rent fee while their store/company cannot open. 

How this disease affected humans:

During this crisis, many people were sick and cannot work or help themselves to get better. If one person in a family is sick, he will likely infect his/her family. People did not have food, water any resources to keep them alive. As time went by, many have died either by the Virus or of hunger, thirst.

Different views/perspectives people held towards the disease:

Not all people thought this virus was random or "just appeared". Some thought the virus was intentional, made by the Chinese government as a biological weapon. Others thought it was made by the U.S.Second, people also believe in different ways where the virus came from. Many have believed it to be an animal virus from bats, others have thought it came from rats, however, this was never a confirmed answer to this.


Different views/perspectives people held towards the disease:

Some people believed the black death was a punishment brought by the Gods, to punish those who processed evil. People who didn't get the virus thought they were chosen and protected by god. Many peopled blamed the Jews for causing this because they didn't get it, however, that was only because the Jews were more sanitized than the Europeans.


How society might be today if these diseases didn’t exist:

Society will be not as different today. If the black death didn't occur, Europe will be over-populated at that time, they had too many people and too few resources. The black death kind-of helped Europe as well. Furthermore, many people will die of starvation and thirst. After all, there is still decline in population however it is just not as much as the black death.

How it will affect in the Future:

This virus is not completely gone, people nowadays are aware and cautious of this virus, so they will try to avoid it. One obvious thing is to avoid eating things that rats have ate, bite before, this is because rats were the major spread of the Black Death in the middle ages. Another effect is that people will be aware of the importance of sanitation as bad sanitation was also the major cause of the people being affected by the Black Death.

How society might be today if these diseases didn’t exist:

China will be a lot wealthier because their economy wouldn't have gone down so much during the crisis. Many companies, businesses, shops would have still been alive and making money now.


How it will affect in the Future:

The virus acted as a lesson to people after the crisis went by, many people had the habit of washing their hands more often and wearing masks too. Even though the virus was gone, people still had that cautious awareness. Many people also tried different ways of business, for example, online stores; Taobao, JD that were very successful during the crisis. Finally, people and healthcares/hospitals had the knowledge and experience to the crisis, so if another crisis pops up a year or two later, they would've known how to handle it and control it.

Overview:


As in all, the Black Death and SARS were completely different diseases and their damage to the world was also very different, however, both diseases had some close similarities between each other. The black death happened in a much older age where health care did not even exist at that time, whereas SARS happened in 2003 where it was already an age of economy, and healthcare was already very advanced. The black death was a bubonic virus which meant it caused serious swelling and inner bleeding. On the other hand, SARS was a respiratory disease that caused pneumonia, and respiratory failure, it was completely different. Both SARS and the black death were spread by people, contact food and water. Although SARS was also semi-airborne and could stay in the air for no longer than 5 minutes. In general SARS and Black death were pretty different apart but they also shared common similarities.

Sources:

Information found on https://www.who.int/ith/diseases

And https://www.who.int/ith/diseases/sars/en/

And https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sars/symptoms-causes/syc-20351765

And https://www.healthline.com/health/plague

And https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/black-death

And https://www.history.com/news/sars-outbreak-china-lessons

And https://www.cdc.gov/about/history/sars/timeline.htm

And https://explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer/document/2265864396?searchid=1590655750&accountid=4047#undefined

And https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?resultListType=RELATED_DOCUMENT&searchType=ts&userGroupName=cnisbj&inPS=true&contentSegment=&prodId=MSIC&docId=GALE|QIBGRG638936443&it=r

And finally https://newsela.com/read/primary-source-black-death/id/28037/?collection_id=2000000398&search_id=c70f18e4-97cd-4a2d-8724-38439d1d0f4c