15 April

An experiment, psychological immunisation. Our pandemic is horrible, but read about what the people who lived during the Black Death endured. The greatest catastrophe in human history. It lasted 3 years, killed about 60% of the entire population, and they died horrific, painful deaths, with no palliative care. Pandemics have happened throughout history, I think learning about them actually helps to build our resilience. On the plus side, obviously Covid-19 is mostly a mild disease, for most people, and the greatest hardship to most of us will be loss of everyday life, including our jobs. Interestingly people lived longer after the Black Death was over, and also they got paid more - pandemics are not just destructive, they actually are correctives in some ways to societies, even if painful ones. https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/black-death