Would it really be a conversation about plagues if noted plague-hater and tuberculosis-fighter John Green wasn't a part of it? In this episode John makes his Tangents debut at last, and we dig deep into whether we could fight an old, fat beaver and win, among other things.

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[Truth or Fail Express]

Hunter-gatherer from 5000 years ago infected with plague

https://www.livescience.com/5000-year-old-man-had-plague.html

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/oldest-strain-of-black-death-bacteria-found-in-5000-year-old-human-remains#Less-deadly-and-less-contagious

Isaac Newton plague cure 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sir-isaac-newtons-plague-prescription-toad-vomit-lozenges-180975039/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/isaac-newton-plague

Sewer pipes in Hanoi let plague-bearing rats breed

https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/poster/colonial-sewers-led-to-more-rats

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hanoi-rat-massacre-1902

[The Scientific Definition]

Four thieves vinegar

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7485289/

https://nutritionalgeography.faculty.ucdavis.edu/clove/

https://www.si.edu/es/object/die-mondsuchtigen:nmah_994026

The Vicary method / The live chicken treatment

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1472106/

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/665487

https://libguides.umn.edu/healthmisinformation

Zenexton 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44444207

https://archive.org/details/b30341681/page/n7/mode/2up

[Ask the Science Couch]

HIV resistance through genetic mutation and selective pressure (possibly from plagues)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1377146/

https://jmg.bmj.com/content/42/3/205

https://www.nature.com/news/2005/050307/full/news050307-15.html

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050325234239.htm

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC299980/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16880184/

Plague doctors probably didn’t look like birds (until later / after theater) 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_F%C3%BCrst,_Der_Doctor_Schnabel_von_Rom_(Holl%C3%A4nder_version).png

https://deathscent.com/2020/05/15/the-redolent-plague-doctor/

https://www.livescience.com/plague-doctors.html

[Butt One More Thing]

Using pastes made with human feces to treat bubonic plague

https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/04/medieval-pandemic-cures-that-were-medieval/

https://hosted.lib.uiowa.edu/histmed/plague/