Plausibility check: On Epidemics...

Would it be absurdly ASB to insert a plague into a Timeline if the disease itself is not the PoD? Flu offers itself to this moreso than would Bubonic plague in terms of plausibility, but only one really notable pandemic occurred, and in war conditions.

Could a disease create a plague on a scale close to the Spanish flu, sometime between 1700-1900?
 
Would it be absurdly ASB to insert a plague into a Timeline if the disease itself is not the PoD? Flu offers itself to this moreso than would Bubonic plague in terms of plausibility, but only one really notable pandemic occurred, and in war conditions.

Could a disease create a plague on a scale close to the Spanish flu, sometime between 1700-1900?

Yes, you just have to make the conditions under which the plague emerges plausible. Remember that during the 1800s, cholera killed tens of millions, because sanitary conditions were poor. If you have your plague outbreak in a clean, sanitary society, then it's unrealistic. But if the society is stressed, i.e. through war or natural disaster or famine, then yes, absolutely a plague or epidemic is plausible.
 
Would this be something like having a surviving Vinland accidentally transferring over rats carrying bubonic plague, which then infects the native population? You would need to look at what carries it. Diseases in which animals or humans are the carriers need persistent conditions to cause those bacteria to reproduce at a rapid enough rate. If those situations occur, then definitely.
 
Would it be absurdly ASB to insert a plague into a Timeline if the disease itself is not the PoD? Flu offers itself to this moreso than would Bubonic plague in terms of plausibility, but only one really notable pandemic occurred, and in war conditions.

Could a disease create a plague on a scale close to the Spanish flu, sometime between 1700-1900?

True, the Spanish flu pandemic spread as it did in large part because of increased the transoceanic and transcontinental transportation/movement of people during and after WWI, but that doesn't mean that the flu couldn't have spread w/o the war. It just means, as Thespitron stated, conditions have to be right. Rats, fleas, seemingly healthy yet sick people, etc. are all able to spread disease. If "something" had infected people in New England in the early 1830s, for example, it could have, under the right conditions, perhaps spread west into the Great Lakes region (both US and Canadian sides) and up & down the Atlantic seaboard before running its course. Do a little research on diseases and how they spread and see what you come up with.
 
Top