In devastating the population, it changed the human immune system, basically wiping out people who couldn’t deal with the disease and leaving the stronger to survive, said study co-author Hendrik Poinar of McMaster University in Ontario.
But simple antibiotics today, such as tetracycline, can beat the bacteria, which doesn’t seem to have properties that enable other germs to become drug-resistant, Poinar said. Plus, changes in medical treatment of the sick, coupled with improved sanitation and economics, put humanity in a far better position. And there’s an immune system protection we mostly have now, Poinar said.
“By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth…”