Kyle Harper

Yeah.

Arthropod or insect vectors are really annoyingly helpful to certain pathogens.

And most – there's actually a relatively small number of diseases that are transmitted through a vector like this.

But they tend to be really, really nasty like malaria, typhus.

And they can kind of get away with it because even if like you're dying –

You know, a mosquito can come and bite you and transmit malaria to me.

Plague is a vector-borne disease, and it's very, very well adapted to transmit, particularly by fleas, but we think also maybe by lice and other biting organisms.

But really by fleas, it's really, really good at transmitting by fleas.

And that's evolution.

Actually, this is one of the cool things with ancient DNA.

We've been able to, like, piece together at the, like, absolute molecular level the

The genetic changes that let it make this protein that like have this effect in fleas.

It's really weird.

It forms this biofilm in the gut of the flea that like chokes it and makes the flea feel like it's starving.

And so the flea just starts feeding and feeding and feeding.

And meanwhile, it's regurgitating bacteria.

We can talk about zombies, but that's a—we need to wind up for that.

Okay, so one, flea—so the plague is vector-borne, and it's really, really good at, like, manipulating the fleas, and it's just evolution.

Two, I said this before, but it's an animal disease.

We're, like—