The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence, the Great Bubonic Plague, the Great Plague or the Plague, or less commonly the Great Mortality or the Black Plague, was the most devastating pandemicrecorded in human history, resulting in the deaths of up to 75-125 million[1][2] people globally (in Eurasia and North Africa),[3] peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.[2][4][5] The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which results in several forms of plague (septicemic, pneumonic and, the most common, bubonic), is believed to have been the cause.[6] The Black Death was the first major European outbreak of plague and the second plague pandemic.[7] (The first was the Plague of Justinian.) The plague created religious, social, and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history.

The Black Death probably originated in Central Asia or East Asia,[8][9][10][11][12] from where it travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1347. From there, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black ratsthat traveled on Genoese merchant ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean Basin, reaching the rest of Europe via the Italian Peninsula. 

The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population.[13] In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 475 million to 350–375 million in the 14th century.[14] It took 200 years for Europe's population to recover to its previous level,[15] and some regions (such as Florence) did not recover until the 19th century.[16][17][18] Outbreaks of the plague recurred until the early 20th century.

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

Meanwhile:

A general practitioner has warned that people with compromised immunity face “absolutely disastrous” outcomes if they fall ill with seasonal flu and coronavirus at the same time.

Put bluntly, “they might die”, said the past president of the Rural Doctors Association, Dr Adam Coltzau.

Young people who keep fit and healthy can also become very sick from the flu, and pass on the virus to people more vulnerable than themselves, meaning no one can afford to become complacent, he said.

Older Australians, as well as people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, asthma and other chronic lung diseases, already have an especially high risk of death if they contract the coronavirus.

Add influenza into the mix, and the consequences for those infected could be “very devastating”, Dr Coltzau said.

The main reason to get a flu shot this year is to avoid putting an intolerable burden on hospitals.

The second is to avoid being in a situation where people end up with two very different viruses simultaneously attacking their respiratory system, said Dr Coltzau.

“You might survive COVID-19 if you get it. You might survive the flu if you get it. If you get COVID-19 and the flu together, you’re really going to be in trouble,” he said.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2020/04/09/flu-vaccine-coronav...

And what about getting the flu, the plague, HIV and Covid19 all at once? 

The cuts hurt

The outcome of the Australia Council's four-year funding applications has left a number of literary publications that missed out reeling at the decisions. Four years ago it was Meanjin that was knocked back by the council. This time Australian Book Review, Overland and the online Sydney Review of Books all missed out, much to their chagrin.

As ABR editor Peter Rose put it bluntly in a statement on the magazine's website: "The Council and its peers demonstrate an unfortunate disregard for the magazine sector, little understanding of its contribution to the literary ecology and no appreciation of the dire consequences for readers, authors, contributors and publishers."

And he continued thus: "Non-funding imperils the work and the future of magazines around the country, already battered by the unique threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems extraordinary that the Australia Council, at such a perilous time, will not fund seasoned, proven, innovative magazines that so strongly promote Australian writing and publishing."

It is hard to disagree with him. Rose was due to hold talks (along with outgoing chair Colin Golvan and incoming chair Sarah Holland-Batt) with Wenona Byrne, director of literature this week. He told Bookmarks he would be questioning the whole process "and we will be seeking answers".

SRB editor Catriona Menzies-Pike was disappointed at being knocked back for funding and said the decision would complicate things. "But we'll be able to carry on publishing."

She said she would be asking questions about the process. "I am troubled by the implications for the sector generally." Menzies-Pike's salary is paid by the University of Western Sydney and all grant money SRB has goes to pay its writers, so the decision was "pulling the rug out from under a large group of writers and critics".

Menzies-Pike said a literary culture needed a lot of different critical, literary publications. "One of the consequences will be that it be hard for small experimental and emerging publications that are pushing the boundaries."

Rose said it was extraordinary that literary magazines should go unfunded by a council that has always supported them as part of the literary scene. He considered the decision evidence of a cultural change at the council that "we find deplorable".

The loss of the funding represents about 15 per cent of ABR's annual budget and while acknowledging that the magazine would receive special transitioning funding in the next financial year, Rose said the magazine would have to dip into the reserves it had built up over the past few years. Some of the ways in which the magazine had expanded over the past decade, such as prizes, fellowships, tours and podcasts, are likely to be threatened.

"We are a 60-year-old project of some national significance. To give it nothing is very dubious. We have taken a deep blow but we are here for the long haul – just in a diminished form."

He also pointed out that ABR had managed to increase what it paid its critics from a miserly $10 per hundred words to $55. However, a plan to lift their rates to $75 per 100 words would now be put on hold.

What Australian literary magazines and bookshops need is someone like James Patterson, who has helped out literacy projects and independent bookshops in the US.

The prolific crime writer gave $US250,000 ($412,000) to school libraries and $US1 million to US bookshops in 2015. Of course it helps that he's loaded – in 2019, according to Forbes, he was worth about $US800 million and earned about $US70 million. With advent of the coronavirus he is donating another $US500,000 to help the independent bookshop sector. There is a new campaign in the country, spearheaded by Patterson, actor and book enthusiast Reese Witherspoon and the American Booksellers Association.

Patterson has quite a track record. He once put a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the US government to take some sort of action in the face of closing bookshops and consolidation of publishers.

"The White House is concerned about saving the airline industry and big businesses – I get that," Patterson said this week. "But I'm concerned about the survival of independent bookstores, which are at the heart of main streets across the country. I believe that books are essential. They make us kinder, more empathetic human beings. And they have the power to take us away – even momentarily – from feeling overwhelmed, anxious and scared. I hope that the funds we raise keep bookstores alive at a time when we need them the most."

So what we want now is a stinking rich Australian to help out our literary magazines and independent bookshops before any of them get into real strife.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/deplorable-australia-council-stuns-...

It has been my unchecked observations that the government and its lackeys at the Council for the Arts or whatever does not like anything that does not have a tutu or a violin in it — or is not gay. The government hates the ABC as well for whatever false reason that it is left-wing. The last time I saw the ABC being left-wing was in 1975, with the dismissal... Lately it has gone more to the right than say PM Menzies, but according to the Morrison government it's not right-wing enough. There are still a few rabid women, probably from Red Fag (no they're not) asking relevant questions on a diminishing source of programs. The highest rating show in its time slot on TV is on the ABC: Hard Quiz... You did not know that, did you? It makes sense when we, the plebs, are in need of laughing entertainment with no philosophical value whatsoever. At least it makes our old neurones try to find impossible answers stuck on the roof of our brains. "I knew that !"

In regard to writing, critics and publishing, the decline had possibly started with the death of Ernest Hemingway, when he shot himself — as he was in constant pain from injuries due to two plane crashes and his diseased liver from drinking too much...

It's time to really enthuse people to read again especially in this stupid isolationing time... The Council should give twice as much moneys to the book and writer pushers... And of course reinstate the full ABC budget as to give us more entertainment and news, beyond productions on an oily smelly rag. 

Read from top.

Note:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakamba

They speak the Bantu Kikamba language as a mother tongue. The Kamba are predominantly based in Machakos, Kitui and Makueni Counties of Kenya. The total population of the Kamba stands at approximately 4.1 million. The Kamba are also called Akamba or Wakamba.

Hemingway had written the letter to Adriana in a language she would not have understood...