Denying the existence of the plague is the best way of spreading it. Denying the existence of a possible Italian default is the best way of making it happen. In 1720 there was the last occurrence of the bubonic plague in Europe, in Marseilles that at that time was one of the most important ports of the Mediterranean. The death rate was 56% and out of 90,000 inhabitants, 50,000 died. The city appeared to be well equipped to stop the spread of the contagion. It had an isolation hospital, a leper hospital and strict entry regulations for ships coming from the East and it had staff dedicated to applying the regulations.
Everything started with the arrival of a ship loaded with merchandise from Sidon. Some of the sailors on the ship died during the journey. The captain, called Chataud declared the deaths when the ship entered the port of Livorno. The city’s medical officers wrote on the health certificate that they had to be kept on board, as there was “a malign pestilential fever” on the ship. Chataud notified the Marseilles port officials, but instead of quarantining the ship, they had it come alongside the hospital’s pontoon where the crew went ashore and the goods were disembarked. The doctors who examined the numerous infected sailors declared that it wasn’t a case of the plague, but a common fever. The sailors and the citizens of Marseilles died in a few days and some doctors finally said that it was a matter of the plague. The ship was quarantined, but the passengers were quarantined just for 15 days, for those ships without cases of infection. Meanwhile, the administrators of Marseilles kept the news of the plague secret, (but it leaked out) so as not to cause a crisis in commercial activity. The surgeon doctor at the hospital continued to deny that it was the plague and he classified it as a fever due to “fruit that had gone off as it was over-ripe”. The citizens were disoriented. On the one hand they suffered the effects of the illness that cut them down like a scythe cuts down ripe wheat, on the other hand they felt reassured by the officials and the doctors. It got to such a point that the communal ditches were no longer sufficient to hold the dead. The Parliament of Provence had to intervene and it completely isolated the city of Marseilles, but it criticised the doctors who had diagnosed the plague calling them “alarmists”. The city council did not admit that the plague was spreading even when presented with the evidence. In less than a year, one of Europe’s most flourishing cities was destroyed.
After that, the “denialist” doctors published an academic book in which they explained that the plague was not an infectious disease, since most of the officials survived. In fact they had reached safety together with 10% of the population (the richest people) who managed to escape before Marseilles was quarantined. Bertrand, a holy hermit, was the only one who tried to warn the people of Marseilles in time, and he was accused of having spread the disease and was thus burned at the stake. Standard & Poor's has cut its rating outlook for Italy from stable to negative. Tremorbi, where are you hiding?