I would not say that I have done "work" about infectious diseases. I just studied it, with a special focus on the Black Death (from 134x to 1720). Between 1347 and 1350, in the first wave, that disease killed about 30 to 50% of Europe's population. It was so devastating that the aftermath of the shockwave is still in our minds today. The AIDS hype we saw in the 80s is a clear sign for this primeval fear. Even the "Zombie" genre is based on that emotion - a deadly danger, slow but unstoppable, caused by something we don't understand. <br><br>Even though people that survived the Black Death did probably not see it that way, the disease ended the middle ages, making way for science and the renaissance. It also ended deforestation and hunger. In that regard it was a classic Mathusian "positive check". <br><br>This will happen again, at some point. We may or may not live to experience it, though. Fascinating thought.<br><br>I wrote a short story about it some years ago (in German), as a contribution to a "What If" anthology. The plot: A young medieval doctor in London, 1349, finds out how to make antibiotics from bread dough. It works...
