Talk:List of historical plagues

message: There is a theory that says that the bubonic plague could not have caused "The  Black Death", the pandemic that halved the european population several times during the middle ages. First, the particular kind of rat that spreads the disease is not endemic to Europe; second, the european writings documenting the disease never mention rats dying prior to the outbreak; third: bubonic plague – being carried by rats and their flea – spreads very slowly and usually dies out after a few tens of kilometers, unlike the black death, which spread lightning fast and gripped the whole of Europe. The evidence suggests that The Black Death was caused by another AIRBORN disease. That disease died out because the european population slowly got immune to it (documents show that a smaller and smaller percent of the population got sick and died with every new epidemic).
:Regarding your comments on the alternative causes of the Black Death  -- please see sections in that article dealing with those theories.  If you have additional information, please feel free to edit it in.  WBardwin 17:24, 29 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't have enough confidence in my english skills to edit articles :). I just read the Black Death article and it does present the alternative theory. The problem is that this article does not, and it passes the bubonic plague as a CERTAIN cause for the Black Death pandemic. Some people might not even get to the other article and read the whole story. That's why I felt that a note saying that there's an alternative theory (with a link to the section in the Black Death article) would be worth including. --82.79.168.47 20:34, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Black Death 

message: I'm currently reading an old (1975) Readers Digest hard cover book and it has a section called "The disease that changed history".
Among the usual outbreaks discussed it also details a 1910 outbreak of Bubonic Plague in Siberia that lasted 7 months and killed over 60,000 people, it especially went into detail on the cause of the plague as it originated in Marmots not rats. 
I've been unable to find anything online about it. Can anyone confirm this outbreak and if confirmed in what artical(s) should it be posted? Wayne 13:27, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Take a look at Third Pandemic which originated in Asia near Siberia, has been associated with marmots, and spread the plague worldwide.  Hope that helps.  WBardwin 04:46, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing Plague? 

message: There was a series of anon edits back in July that collectively presented as fact the contemporary hypothesis that the Black Death and some similar plagues were not Y. Pestis at all, but some viral hemorrhagic disease.  Now, I'm not an expert here, but my impression is that this idea does not yet have general acceptance.  (Obviously, the fact that you can find a reference for the claim does not prove it's generally accepted.)  Someone who knows more about it than I do should edit this to a more neutral presentation. --Trovatore (talk) 10:25, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article is (probably) overconfident in attributing some plagues to a virus instead of Y. Pestis