Thomas Asbridge

“the Black Death claimed around 100 million lives (or more than a quarter of the population of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa).”

“Over the course of six horrifying years," says Asbridge, the Black Death spread “across the face of the known world, engulfing a vast swathe of territory” that stretched from Scandinavia to Mesopotam…”

“the first known example dates to the 1420s, some 80 years after the pandemic swept across the Mediterranean.”