this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
1230 points (99.4% liked)

Science Memes

19777 readers
2305 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 45 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

It hasn't disappeared. It's still exists, it's just that if you get it modern antibiotics can kill it.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 10 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You still have a 5-15% chance of dying with modern antibiotics.

It's the improvement in sanitary practices that ultimately made it a much lesser issue.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

And the virus evolved to be less deadly and people evolved to have better immune responses to it.

The "Spanish Flu" still exists, and is all around us. Endemic to humanity. Meaning the H1N1-subtype of the influenza virus. Which killed 50-100 million people in 1918-1920. (Nowadays it's called the seasonal flu)

I'd like to find an image of anti-antivaxxers, from around that time. They had some good burns against the silly antivaxxers and I just can't remember what they were.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Those are two different things. The bubonic plague is a bacterial infection.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Oh yeah, I should've said "the disease" but I was already talking about flu epidemics in my head.

Good note, thanks, but for other people, as I understand the difference very well and would never suggest antibiotics as a treatment to virus-borne disease. And the evolution of bacteria is very different from viruses. Hell, we haven't even decided if viruses are technically living or not. Anyway, good point