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.
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.

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More from @Gurdur

18 Nov
tiddley om pom pom, I continue to be amazed at those who can receive a message as clear as if I had tattooed it, in short monosyllables, in mirror-writing on their foreheads, so they could always read it every time they saw their reflection, yet still somehow manage to stay dense
There is a really common element running through all the events of the last 4 days, running since 2012 & the destruction of the scicomm community, running since forever:
the denial of the courtesy of simple human decency towards those in need.
Read 4 tweets
17 Nov
1/n Today, I logged in and found a DM from someone I don't follow, & who I didn't know at all. My DM's are open to all; so far, abuse of that has been very low. The DM was only a really stupid gif of a pig defecating. That's strange, I thought, why me? So I followed it up.
2/n It all turns out, @lollazymer has deep problems, one of which is telling the difference between "communal" and "commune". Use a dictionary for the hard words, @lollazymer! (yes, this perp was talking about me). Image
3/n I did a whole thread to explain to your privileged, totally ignorant, American self, @lollazymer, all about village communal toilets. I hope you've learnt by now the difference between communal and commune?

Read 8 tweets
17 Nov
1/n Some days back, I did a thread just for a tweep, just explaining my POV. This time round, I'm going to discuss, for everyone, villages, toilets and rape. Feel free to flame all you like on this thread. I will be very sarcastic at times.

2/n This entire thread is for the education of an extremely dense, malicious flamer, but it also serves for y'all. In Tanzania, running-water is the exception, not the rule, for the majority of inhabitants. My photo of women fetching water from a nearby river. Hard work, daily Image
3/n If a village is fortunate, they will have one single communal water-tap, with water running from some central dam. This is the exception, not the rule.

My photo of villagers transporting goods (here, sugar-cane, and home-made charcoal, for selling). Image
Read 12 tweets
17 Nov
I want to talk about Tanzania in a couple of different ways today, in several different threads. Medicine and village life. If you think I'm happily irresponsible, well I am, but it's also self-training for trips in Tanzania.

2/ In Tanzania, most people can get access to meds — IFF they've the money — but not to doctors. In the event of really needing a medico, they have to be either very rich, or stand in line for one of the numerous international aid doctors. Average wage in Tanzania: $2/day. Two.
3/ Give y'all one guess about the length of time you can expect to be waiting in line for a real medico to see you, almost free to you, because international aid. Yes, talk in *months* for most cases.

Read 16 tweets
17 Nov
1/n Just had a fascinating conversation with the neighbour, the one with a carpentry business in the ex-manufactory, which abuts the garden on one side. This is the guy who got hauled off two weeks ago in an ambulance, with #norovirus.

cc.@NanHayworth

2/n Turns out finally (oh, how I hate incomplete and/or erroneous reports) that the bloke actually *also* had what I diagnosed from report as a TIA (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient…), which was the trigger for his wife calling the ambulance.
cc.@NanHayworth, @dhambrick63, @thinkalot
3/n Norovirus, a TIA from norovirus, neurovirus amirite hurrr hurr herp derp. No, it does make sense; massive dehydration, combined with lying position, causing a fairly BIG TIA, one-sided loss of all motor control (right side of body), just to really *clinch* Dx, stark aphasia!
Read 7 tweets
16 Nov
1/ The sight of a privileged American on the attack against the voice of a Nigerian writer just for being heard is .... more than iffy, @Jezebel, @HarronWawker.
2/ Hate to burst your bubble, @Jezebel, @HarronWawker, but there is NO "concurrent worldwide uprising against the actual police". Can you either get outside more, or please share that spliff, it looks good stuff. Image
3/ But this spite. JK Rowling likes interacting with children on Twitter. Tons of flamers started tweeting explicit dick pix and similar on every JKR thread where she was talking with children. Whatever you pretend, @Jezebel, @HarronWawker, that's sick, NOT "deserved criticism". Image
Read 4 tweets

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