Decameron, the classic piece of medieval literature, starts with a depiction of the devastating plague — the Black Death. According to the narrator, that terrible pestilence came from the East and ravaged Europe, killing over one hundred thousand people only in Florence. Nowadays, humanity has an unfortunate opportunity to experience COVID-19 — the modern-day disease, stopping people from returning to normal life. The situations between the two plagues have certain similarities; however, they also have significant differences.
Most importantly, there is one vital difference, for which modern humans should be especially thankful. Healthcare and science made a big step forward since the middle of the 14th century. Nowadays, bubonic plague, the terrible pestilence described in Decameron, can be reliably isolated and cured with an anti-plague serum. Ongoing vaccination waves will hopefully do the same to COVID-19, while the plague from Decameron only stopped after about 50% of Europe’s population died. The authorities are not helpless as well; Boccaccio drew a picture of impending doom and anarchy. In the modern world, governments managed to keep control and stop panic at the cost of massive logistic and economic expenses.
The similarity with the COVID-19 situation lies within the public attitude towards the pandemic. It seems that modern humans have very much in common with their medieval ancestors. Just like in the 14th century, there are groups of citizens which act reasonably and seclude themselves to avoid infection, and there are those who seemingly do not care. Luckily, COVID-19 mortality rates are nothing in comparison with the Black Death. Otherwise, modern-day analogs of people who wandered from tavern to tavern in time of rampant contagious disease would have done way more damage than they already caused. Hopefully, COVID-19 will soon become similar to bubonic plague in another regard: stopping being a significant threat to public health.