Editing Plague of Justinian (section)

===Onset of the first plague pandemic===
{{Main|First plague pandemic}}
The Plague of Justinian is the first and the best known outbreak of the first plague pandemic, which continued to recur until the middle of the 8th century.<ref name="Stathakopoulos"/><ref>{{Cite journal |date=December 2020 |title=The Justinianic Plague and Global Pandemics: The Making of the Plague Concept |journal=The American Historical Review |doi=10.1093/ahr/rhaa510 |last1=Eisenberg |first1=Merle |last2=Mordechai |first2=Lee |volume=125|issue=5|pages=1632–1667}}</ref> Some historians believe the first plague pandemic was one of the [[List of epidemics|deadliest pandemics in history]], resulting in the deaths of an estimated 15 to 100 million people during two centuries of recurrence, a death toll equivalent to 25 to 60% of Europe's population at the time of the first outbreak.<ref name="Mordechai 2019-12-17">{{Cite journal |last1=Mordechai |first1=Lee |last2=Eisenberg |first2=Merle |last3=Newfield |first3=Timothy P. |last4=Izdebski |first4=Adam |last5=Kay |first5=Janet E. |last6=Poinar |first6=Hendrik |date=2019-12-17 |title=The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic? |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=116 |issue=51 |pages=25546–25554 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1903797116 |issn=0027-8424 |pmid=31792176 |pmc=6926030 |bibcode=2019PNAS..11625546M |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Maugh |first1=Thomas |title=An Empire's Epidemic |url=https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anempiresepidemic.html |website=www.ph.ucla.edu |access-date=20 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rosen |first=William |year=2007 |url=http://www.justiniansflea.com/events.htm |title=Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe |publisher=[[Viking Press|Viking Adult]] | location=New York City|page=3 |isbn=978-0-670-03855-8}}</ref> Research published in 2019 argued that the 200-year-long pandemic's death toll and social effects have been exaggerated, comparing it to the modern [[third plague pandemic]] (1855–1960s).<ref name="Mordechai 2019-12-17"/><ref name="Mordechai 2019-08-01"/> Furthermore, some historians argue that the eyewitness accounts of the disease are hysterical in tone and therefore misleading.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sarris |first1=Peter |title=The Justinianic plague: origins and effects |journal=Continuity and Change |date=August 2002 |volume=17 |issue=2 |page=173 |doi=10.1017/S0268416002004137 |s2cid=144954310 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F48D7B45421836E3F25613CF68EE6F30/S0268416002004137a.pdf/the-justinianic-plague-origins-and-effects.pdf |access-date=2023-12-08}}</ref>