and I'm not what you might want to call a microbial Marxist.

我也不是你可能会称为的微生物马克思主义者
My argument instead is simply

我的论点仅仅是
that certain diseases do have a transforming effect on society,

某一特定疾病对社会的转变有影响
plague being one of them.

瘟疫是其中之一
Certain others do not,

其它的某些疾病不是
even great killers such as polio or influenza.

即使是像小儿麻痹症或者流感那样的大杀手
We're going to examine why this major difference

我们将会研究为什么有这个重大的差别
why some diseases have a much more

为什么一些疾病比另一些
lasting footprint than others.

有更深远的影响
Bubonic plague was a disease

腺鼠疫这种疾病
that affected every aspect of society.

影响着社会的每个方面
It transformed the demography of Europe.

它改变了欧洲的人口统计学