"Like people anywhere else, the Oranians are completely unprepared when rats begin emerging from the sewers to die in droves in streets and laneways. Then, men, women and children start to fall ill with high
fever, difficulties breathing and fatal buboes.
The people of Oran initially “disbelieved in pestilences”, outside of
the pages of history books. So, like many nations in 2020, they are
slow to accept the enormity of what is occurring. As our narrator
comments drily: “In this respect they were wrong, and their views
obviously called for revision.”
The numbers of afflicted rise. First slowly, then exponentially. By
the time the plague-bearing spring gives way to a sweltering summer,
over 100 deaths daily is the new normal."
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