WHY did some people survive the BLACK DEATH when others did not and how is arguably the most famous plague in history still affecting us today? In this video we’re going to look at this medieval disaster, which swept through Europe and parts of Asia in the 14th century and hear how new research shows how one of the long-term effects of the Black Death has affected our DNA so that it is still protecting and harming us, even now.

We’ll start with a history of the Black Death, which was caused by the yersinia pestis bacterium and spread to humans by a mixture of rats and fleas. We’ll then look at how the Black Death was spread, the symptoms of the Black Death, famous victims of the Black Death and how many people died from the Black Death, for its mortality rate was so high that it is considered by many to be the most deadly plague in history. We’ll also learn why was it called the Black Death and spoiler alert, it has nothing to do with the symptoms of the disease. After this overview we’ll look at research released in 2022 and based on a scientific study of hundreds of skeletons of victims of the Black Death from England and Denmark which shows that those with a particular trait in their DNA were 40% more likely to survive it (and pass on their stronger genes to later generations). This would make the pestilence one of the most important natural selection events in human history, but that this genetic quirk also makes modern possessors of it more likely to succumb to certain auto-immune diseases.