Times of the Islands Spring 2021

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This vintage illustration features Christopher Columbus in 1492 standing among his crew aboard the Santa Maria with the distant view of an island on the horizon. Interestingly, the Columbian Exchange went both ways and sometimes it was the colonizers who got sick. Historically, little attention has been paid to dead Colonial Spaniards, yet die they did and at alarming rates. Influenza virus, a pathogen with known pandemic potential, was possibly introduced in the early years of Spanish contact. However, the first reliable report of influenza involved transmission from Africa to Europe in 1510, and flu does not spread very well in equatorial regions. We now know that influenza is particularly good at “escaping” our immune system through frequent viral evolution of the part of the virus that interacts with our immune system. Despite recent claims to the contrary, flu is a deadly disease that is today held in check by vaccines, therapies and other medical interventions. In addition, mask wearing and social distancing during the current COVID-19 crisis contributed to a significant decline in influenza and other respiratory infections and deaths this year. The most stunning example of a deadly flu is the “Great Influenza” of 1918. It occurred before a viral agent had been identified and spurred remarkable scientific efforts to develop a vaccine. Our modern Public Health Service was created to counter its spread. John Barry described how the initial outbreak in an army camp in Kansas blossomed into a global pandemic that killed as many as 100 million people worldwide. Although com- monly known as the “Spanish flu,” it did not originate there. Rather, Spain had the only press in which the epidemic was accurately reported. In the United States, where the virus originated, press coverage was tightly restricted at the height of World War I. The first victim in the politics of disease was any “real news” coverage of this pandemic. Wear a mask, wash your hands, socially distance, get vaccinated We have saved the most deadly virgin soil pathogen for last: smallpox. Smallpox is estimated to have killed around 500 million people worldwide in the last century alone. Although “completely eradicated” in 1980, it has recently reappeared in some rare cases. With distinctive symptoms (red pustules or “pox”), it is rather unlikely to be misidentified even by non-medical personnel. The first smallpox pandemic in the Americas began in 1517, so it could not have been responsible for initial high mortality among the Taínos. Nevertheless, it was the final nail in their coffin. A recorded Taíno population of 28,000 in 1514 was reduced to only 250 by 1540. In the British colonies of North America, smallpox 34 www.timespub.tc
TWATIMES_Layout 1 2/16/17 7:49 AM Page 1 is infamous as the first biological weapon, with British colonists infecting local Natives and American soldiers reportedly distributing infected blankets out west. The disease ravaged Native communities in the United States until the 1880s, long after an effective vaccine had become available. In fact, attention to smallpox waned only after it was superseded by tuberculosis as the principal scourge of Native Americans. The histories of those lethal diseases (smallpox 1517, malaria 1550, measles 1765) show that they could not have been responsible for a virgin soil epidemic during the first decades of European contact. This leaves influenza as the last remaining candidate, but the evidence is not conclusive. We’ll close this essay with the letter N, a mathematical notation used to indicate the size of a population. Columbus’s brother Bartholomew supposedly counted a Taíno population of 1,100,000 in 1494. Often repeated in 16th century accounts, Las Casas eventually decided that the N was too small for the purposes of his polemic against the mistreatment of the Natives. Within 30 years he first tripled and then quadrupled the N to 4 million souls. Although the numbers were obviously inflated to serve a “moral” agenda, historians felt a need to explain the rapid demise of thriving Caribbean societies, and they did so by proposing virgin soil epidemics caused by Old World diseases. Bottom line: It is unlikely that disease was the major factor in the depopulation of Hispaniola and demise of the Taínos at the dawn of the 16th century. In a future essay we’ll explore exciting new genetics research that could dramatically improve our ability to calculate past population numbers. By knowing how many people were susceptible, we can better appreciate the historical impacts of infectious diseases. There is still a lot to be learned about the letters R and N. In the meantime, wear a mask, wash your hands, socially distance and get vaccinated. a Dr. Lindsay Keegan is Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Epidemiology (University of Utah); Dr. Betsy Carlson is Senior Archaeologist at Southeastern Archaeological Research (SEARCH, Inc.) in Jonesville, FL; Dr. Michael Pateman is former Director of the Turks & Caicos National Museum and currently Curator/Lab Director of the AEX Maritime Museum on Grand Bahama; and Dr. Bill Keegan is Curator of Caribbean Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History (University of Florida). Serving international & domestic clients in real estate, property development, mortgages, corporate & commercial matters, immigration, & more. TEL 649.946.4261 TMW@TMWLAW.TC WWW.TWAMARCELINWOLF.COM Taino Paintings by Theodore Morris tainopaintings.weebly.com mail:morristheodore@hotmail.com 3910 Longhorn Dr - Sarasota, Fl34233 Times of the Islands Spring 2021 35
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Page 33: This llustrated panel from the 16th
Page 37 and 38: green pages newsletter of the depar
Page 45: green pages newsletter of the depar
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