CRD wrote:
If I remember what I read right cats bring down the rat populations had alot to do with the plague coming under control that and better sanitation. It still lives on fleas in the south western US but can be treated with antibiotics were there are still a few cases each year mostly effecting the homeless.
Cats have the same fleas as rats. Cats can transmit the pneumonic form of the plague to humans... same bug, different form. Probably trash pick-up and human rat killers (a bounty was paid per head) were more responsible for the decline in bubonic plague. I've also heard put forth the possibility that the "Black Death" was actually an ebola virus, rather than bubonic as initially thought.
Most of the people here in the SW that contract the plague aren't homeless. They're perfectly middle class folks who somehow got bitten by an infected flea (hiking, etc) or breathed on by an infected cat.
Having not noticed massive change after the Harmonic Convergence or any Millenial Shift, I'm not expecting much out of 2012 beyond amusement. High mortality pandemic will eventually show up... but I don't think the H1N1 flu is it. I've got my masks and Tamiflu (though I notice that becoming less effective in Rx) just in case this one becomes a lethal bug. Oh, and my firearms. Because if the folks in the nearest population center get panicked, I don't feel like being their victim, thank you very much.