Thread by @Gurdur

1/n This is a good start for a new thread (one I will add to over the next days), because the concept of waves in epidemics, as for #COVID19, is often much misunderstood.

https://twitter.com/holzprueghel/status/1328374311372025868

2/ The average Neolithic hunter/gatherer was taller, stronger, & above all *more healthy* than the average Victorian-era Englander. Only, there were a *ton* more Victorian Britons than ever there were Neolithic hunter-gatherers; this seeming paradox plays a role in epidemics too

3/ You're the product, not only of all your ancestors, but also of all the different animal species your ancestors lived in close-quarters with. Not being hunter-gatherers any more actually meant more food for all, so more descendents, but it also meant a myriad more pathogens

4/ Any epidemic is also a complex inter-relationship between humans & human social behaviour; if the pathogen has animal hosts, it becomes far more complex. Smallpox, unique to humans, has sister-viruses in other animals, which complicates the picture on immunity (cowpox etc.).

5/ Epidemics are complex matters. The Black Death is highly lethal, doesn't hang around except in certain animals; changes in human social behavior mean changes in transmission (stop depending on shipped grain & barrels of furs, drop the city gates)
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

6/ The Great Fire probably played a small part, but would have been useless on its own. I'll continue this thread in a few days.

https://twitter.com/CurlyKing79/status/1328395625499652096