3 Comments

  • I actually know a guy who caught (and was cured of) the black plague in the late 90s in Los Angeles. The medical consensus was that he was probably bitten by infected fleas during a hiking/camping trip in the San Gabriel mountains, north of Pasadena.

    So I for one can easily believe that this might be a real problem, for once.

  • According to the CDC, the US experiences 10-15 cases of plague every year. The last urban outbreak was 1924-25 in LA.

  • I wonder what medical advice, if any, the park management obtained? It’s possible that part of their motivation may have been excessive concern over “plague”. Although bubonic plague was of course a huge problem at one time, it is presently treatable with rather ordinary antibiotics. It just isn’t that big a deal.