This may raise the hairs on the back of many readers' necks: After Corona, the plague has now also broken out in China?
At a time when people are living with uncertainty and fear due to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, reports of a plague outbreak in China are not exactly convenient.
In fact, you can find various reports of a plague outbreak. This is of course worrying, because when you hear the term “plague” you immediately have an image of millions of deaths in your head.
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Dark Middle Ages, doctors with raven masks, people wasting away. Not a pleasant thought. But what should we make of these reports of the plague outbreak in China?
First of all: In fact, the information about plague cases in China is not fake. But here too (as in other places) it is worth reading more than just the headline.
Fact check: Plague in China
What happened? In fact, there have been confirmed cases of the plague in China. The media widely spoke of 4 cases that were dealt with directly. Rats and fleas and potential vectors were combated with poison on site.
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Spray planes were used (no fake this time!) to spray an area of 80 hectares of land with poison ( see HERE ). But is there reason to panic now?
Few cases, older articles
If you see an article about the plague in China, you don't have to panic. The media reports about the 4 cases in China date from November 2019. Since then there have been no new reports that even speak of a large-scale outbreak. Der Spiegel described this topic on November 29, 2019:
In China there are repeated isolated infections with plague pathogens. According to state media, from 2009 to September 2019, 27 people fell ill with various forms of the plague - twelve of them died.
Conclusion:
No fear! Yes, there were 4 cases. No, there was no major outbreak. It doesn't look like we currently have to fight the plague in addition to the coronavirus.
Article image by maybe_nataly / Shutterstock.com
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )