Editing Plague of Justinian (section)

=== Virulence and mortality rate ===
The mortality rate is uncertain and remains heavily debated. Some modern scholars believe that the plague killed up to 5,000 people per day in Constantinople at the peak of the pandemic.<ref name="Mordechai 2019-08-01">{{Cite journal |last1=Mordechai |first1=Lee |last2=Eisenberg |first2=Merle |date=August 1, 2019 |title=Rejecting Catastrophe: The Case of the Justinianic Plague |journal=[[Past & Present (journal)|Past & Present]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxfordshire, England |language=en |issue=244 |page=46 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtz009 |issn=0031-2746}}</ref> According to one view, the initial plague ultimately killed perhaps 40% of the city's inhabitants and caused the deaths of up to a quarter of the human population of the [[Eastern Mediterranean]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Cyril A. Mango |title=Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome |year=1980}} emphasizes the demographic effects; {{cite journal |author=Mark Whittow |title=Ruling the late Roman and Byzantine city |journal=Past and Present |issue=33 |date=1990}} argues against too great reliance on literary sources.</ref> Frequent subsequent waves of the plague continued to strike throughout the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries, with the disease becoming more localized and less virulent.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Revisionist views suggest that the mortality of the Justinian Plague was far lower than previously believed. Lee Mordechai and Merle Eisenberg argue that the plague might have caused high mortality in specific places, but it did not cause widespread demographic decline or decimate Mediterranean populations. Therefore, any direct mid-to-long term effects of plague were minor.<ref name="Mordechai 2019-08-01" /> However, [[Peter Sarris]] criticizes their methodology and source handling, and provides a discussion of the genetic evidence, including the suggestion that the plague may have entered Western Eurasia via more than one route, and perhaps struck England before Constantinople.<ref name="Sarris">{{cite journal |journal=[[Past & Present (journal)|Past & Present]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |last=Sarris |first=Peter |date=November 13, 2021 |title=Viewpoint New Approaches to the 'Plague of Justinian' |issue=254 |pages=315–346 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtab024 |doi-access=free}}</ref> On the other hand, Haggai Olshanetsky and Lev Cosijns reassert the view that the plague had a limited impact, as various archaeological evidence indicates there was no demographic or economic decline in the 6th century Eastern Mediterranean.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Klio|year=2024|title=Challenging the Significance of the LALIA and the Justinianic Plague: A Reanalysis of the Archaeological Record|last1= Olshanetsky|first1=Haggai|last2=Cosijns|first2=Lev|pp=721–759|doi=10.1515/klio-2023-0031|volume=106|issue=2|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/klio-2023-0031/html|doi-access=free}}</ref>