The quote from Barbara W. Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" vividly illustrates the dire and sudden nature of a disease that ravaged the population during that time. Individuals experienced a swift decline in health, with reports of people falling ill and succumbing to the illness overnight. This highlights not only the ferocity of the disease but the terror it instilled in society, where seemingly healthy individuals faced an unpredictable fate.

Moreover, the mention of doctors contracting the illness while attending to patients underscores the widespread vulnerability of even the most knowledgeable and skilled individuals. Their attempts to care for others ended in tragedy, emphasizing the disease's indiscriminate nature. This period was marked by fear, as both patients and caregivers found themselves trapped in a relentless fight against an unseen adversary.