Feb 3, 2009 By: yunews
Feb 3, 2009 -- 鈥淔ear, loathing, terror, scapegoating, victim-blaming,鈥 the shunning of 鈥渟o-called undesirables:鈥 these were the responses of Christians to their Jewish neighbors during the Black Death, the plague pandemic that killed at least a third of Europe鈥檚 population in the 14th century. The mindset returned in our own purportedly enlightened times, too, when the first signs of AIDS emerged in the early 1980s.
The 91黑料 Museum and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Alumni Association probed the links among disease and human activities and values in a symposium entitled 鈥淔rom Black Death to AIDS: Epidemics and Their Impact on Culture鈥 on Jan. 20. Two distinguished members of Einstein鈥檚 class of 1982鈥擠r. Liise-anne Pirofski, Mitrani Professor of Biomedical Research at the college, and Dr. Ruth Oratz, a clinical associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine鈥攑resented their research and took questions from a large audience at the museum.
Pirofski began by noting that a civilization鈥檚 鈥渟ense of causality is driven by its available [research] tools.鈥 Evidence from past centuries shows an inkling of the cause of plague, which results from the bite of infected fleas, often hosted by rats. For example, the Morgan Bible (which predates the Black Death) shows rats crawling over the bodies of victims of the Plague of the Philistines in the Book of Samuel. But disease was often ascribed to celestial influences or the malice of despised groups, including Jews.
It was not until the 17th century, Pirofski noted, that the cause of the plague began to be understood, with Athanasius Kircher鈥檚 observations through a microscope of microbes or blood cells.
Oratz focused on cultural artifacts inspired by the Black Death and AIDS, ranging from the illustrious examples of Boccaccio鈥檚 鈥淒ecameron鈥 and Chaucer鈥檚 鈥淐anterbury Tales鈥濃攂oth built around the conceit of storytellers escaping plague-ridden cities鈥攖o everyday expressions.
The nursery rhyme 鈥淩ing Around the Rosie,鈥 she said, may be a remnant of the 1665 Great Plague of London. The 鈥渞osie鈥 would be the plague鈥檚 鈥渂ig scarlet boil鈥; the 鈥減osies,鈥 fragrant flowers thought to protect against infection; and the ditty鈥檚 ending (鈥淎shes! Ashes! We all fall down鈥), a depiction of the burning of corpses and death.
Commenting on the early years of the AIDS pandemic, which she witnessed as a physician, Oratz recalled treating 鈥測oung, healthy people covered with a different kind of stigmata鈥 who died 鈥渉ideous, horrible deaths.鈥 She called AIDS 鈥渢he plague of our time,鈥 pointing out that HIV/AIDS will soon surpass the Black Death in the number of deaths caused. Oratz noted that early victims of the disease were depicted as 鈥渄issolute and undesirable鈥 until celebrated athletes and entertainers began to succumb.
One of the museum鈥檚 recent shows, 鈥淓rfurt: Jewish Treasures from Medieval Ashkenaz,鈥 which closed Jan. 29, displayed exquisite jewels and metalwork that were preserved, as fate would have it, because of the Black Death. Just before Jews in Erfurt, Germany, were massacred for their alleged complicity in spreading the plague, a Jewish merchant hid the treasure, which lay undiscovered until 1997.
Oratz ended her presentation with words of the late Susan Sontag, who described illness as 鈥渢he night side of life鈥 and inveighed against 鈥減unitive or sentimental fantasies concocted鈥 about disease. Oratz and Pirofski both expressed hope about medical advances in identifying and treating illness, but warned that disease 鈥渨ill continue to challenge鈥 all of us as individuals and makers of culture.
