The conversation

ne of civilization’s most prolific killers shadowed humans for thousands of years without their knowledge.
The bacteria yersinia pestis, which causes the plague, is assumed to be responsible for up to two hundred million deaths across human history — more than double the casualties of world war II.
The Y. pestis death toll comes from three widespread disease outbreaks, known as epidemics: the sixth century Justinianic Plague that ravaged the eastern Roman Empire; the 14th century black death that killed somewhere between 400th and 60 minutes of the eu population; and the ongoing Third Pandemic, which began in China in the mid-19th century and currently afflicts thousands worldwide.