What Could be an Emerging Scene from the Medieval Black Plagues Ravaging Medieval Europe… 

New Orleans' Mardi Gras/Carnival w/ 1.4m tourists(exchanging beads & sharing drinks) in late Feb. 2020 places New Orleans  "on the trajectory to become the epicenter for the outbreak in the United States."  

March 25 (Reuters) - New Orleans is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the United States, dimming hopes that less densely populated and warmer-climate cities would escape the worst of the pandemic, and that summer months could see it wane.The plight of New Orleans - with the world's highest growth rate in coronavirus cases - also raises fears that the city may become a powerful catalyst in spreading the virus across the south of the country. Authorities have warned the number of cases in New Orleans could overwhelm its hospitals by April 4.New Orleans is the biggest city in Louisiana, the state with the third-highest case load of coronavirus in the United States on a per capita basis after the major epicenters of New York and Washington.The growth rate in Louisiana tops all others, according to a University of Louisiana at Lafayette analysis of global data, with the number of cases rising by 30% in the 24 hours before noon on Wednesday. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a major federal disaster declaration for the state, freeing federal funds and resources.Some 70% of Louisiana's 1,795 confirmed cases to date are in the New Orleans metro area.The culprit for the rapid spread of coronavirus in the Big Easy? Some blame Carnival."Mardi Gras was the perfect storm, it provided the perfect conditions for the spread of this virus," said Dr. Rebekah Gee, who until January was the Health Secretary for Louisiana and now heads up Louisiana State University's health care services division.She noted that Fat Tuesday fell on Feb. 25, when the virus was already in the United States but before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and national leaders had raised the alarm with the American public."New Orleans had its normal level of celebration, which involved people congregating in large crowds and some 1.4 million tourists," Gee said. "We shared drink cups. We shared each other's space in the crowds. People were in close contact catching beads. It is now clear that people also caught coronavirus."Gee said that the explosive growth rate of the coronavirus in the Mississippi River port city means "it's on the trajectory to become the epicenter for the outbreak in the United States." https://news.trust.org/item/20200325200808-oc1ie