In history, there have been multiple devastating epidemics of diseases such as smallpox or the plague. These generally occurred before the invention of vaccines. One of the most devastating outbreaks of disease in history has been the great plague of Europe which nearly wiped out an entire population. The plague was so devastating that even simply saying “the plague” will immediately pull it to the front of your mind. In the middle of the 14th century from 1347 to 1351 the black death remade Europe and the world. In a time when the estimated population of the world was about 450 million at least 75 million people were believed to have been killed by this deadly disease, with some estimates as high as 200 million. About half of Europe may have
