I read somewhere that going back in time would mean that we would infect the populace with the viruses and bacteria we harbour in our bodies. And we are also vaccinated against other diseases e.g smallpox using poxvirus.
if we were to travel to the past, would we infect the locals who wouldn’t be immune and basically recreate the plague?
Can the diseases we are currently vaccinated against infect others? why / why not?
Can the other bacteria/viruses that exist in our bodies cause a deadly outbreak? eg: flu / strep A
Additional scenario: What would happen if we set foot on Sentinel island? What organisms on/in our body would be fatal to them or people in the past ( say 1000 years ago ) ?
In: Biology
My assumption has always been that if and when we do invent time travel they won’t allow you to travel to a time before it was invented
Only commenting on the biological feasibility.
There’s a lot of crap on our skin at any given time, outside our bodies and away from our immune system, so it doesn’t matter if we’re vaccinated from it or not, we still carry it, kind of like an army camped outside impenetrable city walls. This means that we _will_ spread everything wherever we go. All we have to do is go there. So, if we go to a time where there’s no immunity to something on our skin, they are screwed.
Going back in time would violate causality (that is, cause follows effect) and so there is no logic to what would happen if you did.
A normal, healthy person is unlikely to be currently a carrier for any serious diseases. Your body would not kill everyone if you went back in time/ met an uncontacted, isolated population with no shared immunity.
Maybe. Because you might be a carrier for many diseases that could easily spread and have devastating effects. Maybe you’ve got influenza, or syphilis or HIV or any number of other very dangerous diseases you could introduce to the local population.
Probably both, tbh.
All the microbes in your skin would pose a risk to the people of history.
The smallpox and other diseases that were prevalent back then would pose a risk to you.
Well certainly you could go back just ten years. Let us say you travel with COVID. You go back ten years and the epidemic happens then instead of more recently. It sort of depends how far back in time you go. If you go back to 1400’s in America the natives may get some diseases from you that may be dangerous to them. Something as simple as the flu. Modern flu is not that bad today because you have some immunity. If you, or those natives years ago caught the same flu without any immunity you would get a lot sicker. If they were otherwise healthy they probably would not die from it but they would get a lot sicker than people around us today do. As for deadly disease, well you have to have the disease to transmit it. Do you have small pox? Don’t answer, you don’t so going back to 1400’s your not going to give it to them. However if in your travel you go back to Europe in that time, you yourself might be the one that dies by catching small pox. Most today are not vaccinated so you would be the one at risk. Same with bacteria. The common bacteria you carry while healthy don’t harm you and would not likely harm those in 1400 either. To give them a deadly bacteria, you must have it yourself, and it will be deadly to you too. Statistically speaking, if you are an adult in the U.S. the chances are you have three viruses in you, Herpes simplex 1 or 2, chicken pox and EBV. Other viruses an adult may have but at lower chances are HPV, maybe HIV. Most other viruses are pretty rare in adults so statistically speaking the first three are the most likely ones you carry back. All three of these have been around for a long time and haven’t changed a great deal in a while. Further, the EBV is dormant in your B cells, the Herpes only shows up on outbreaks (and a lot of people don’t get any outbreaks at all, but likely have it, they just don’t know it), and HPV you would have to have sex with someone to transmit. But that is only likely to develop into cancer in a small fraction of people you transmit it to.
But the reverse is more likely. If you go back 100 years or more most everyone you meet will have parasites which you will catch in short order. Other diseases not common today may be more likely to be exposed to back then.
So all in all, you on average are not likely to carry something back that harms them. More so you will be exposed to things and your health will suffer, much like they did back then, with diseases endemic of the time. The viruses you are likely to have were around back then and are not new, and have not changed a great deal. So this would not be causing plagues. In fact, speaking of plague, if you went back in Europe you might catch the plague itself. Unless you take medicine with you, you may die just like everyone else.
I’m more interested in dimension hopping, hopefully I can find one where I am not morbidly depressed
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