With the Covid-19 pandemic in the news all the time, i'm came back thinking about "Confessions and Lamentations".
Babylon 5: Could there have been a way for the Markab to save themselves against the drafa plague?
- Thread starter Unimatrix Q
- Start date
Didn’t they cone up with a cure but too late?
I was just watching the episode a few weeks ago. Dr. Franklin did come up with a cure, but by the time he got to use it, the Markab were all dead, and the news was reporting that all-known Markab were dead, but there could still be a few out there alive; the news declared them extinct until a live one was found. A few episodes later, Captain Sheridan destroyed the Markab gate so that no grave robbers could pilfer the Markab homeworld.
Well the main way they could have saved themselves was by not treating a highly infectious pathogen like a social taboo, and allow it to go ignored long enough for it to get to the point where it could become an extinction level event in the first place...that and locking ALL of their people in to a tight, confined space might have helped a little.
That's the thing though, they really weren't thinking about it like a disease, they were thinking about it like divine punishment and that it was *everyone else* that was the problem. They didn't need to listen to scientists and doctors, they needed to repent and pray for salvation...
In short: draffa didn't kill the Markab, chronic stupidity and ignorance killed the Markab.
Confessions and Lamentations was about the extinction of the Markab due to illness.
I remember another episode about the Hyach species who are dying due to their failing genome. They had genocided a twin species called Hyach-do with whom they used to cross breed with. They are now destined to become extinct themselves.
Also the Centuari had wiped out the Xon on their home planet centuries earlier.
I remember another episode about the Hyach species who are dying due to their failing genome. They had genocided a twin species called Hyach-do with whom they used to cross breed with. They are now destined to become extinct themselves.
Also the Centuari had wiped out the Xon on their home planet centuries earlier.
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Yeah, the ignorance of the Markab played the biggest part in their downfall. But what would have happened if either Earthforce, the Minbari or a member of the league knew about the disease and came up with a cure, before all Markab were killed?
And when exactly was it too late for them to be saved?
And when exactly was it too late for them to be saved?
I thought about adding something along these lines to my post, but I couldn't figure out how to integrate it, because it's one thing to provide a culture with sound medical advice, and another to try to rewrite their spiritual belief system.
I guess one question is whether there were enough Markab on B5 to repopulate the species if necessary. They had a cure, they just didn't get it where it needed to be in time.
Otherwise, it's unclear what other efforts were being made to save them and how much time, if any, would have made a difference.
Sadly, their cultural beliefs that dictated their response to the plague were antithetical to maximizing their odds of survival.
Who's to say they would have accepted a cure for a disease that none of them had? "Of course everyone knows draffa only afflicts the sinful and how dare you imply that me or my family are infected!"
On top of that, they're not going to trust in any cure or vaccine that comes from aliens, at least not until they're desperate, by which point they've already passed the point of no return. Any scientist, doctor or politician trying to put forward such a proposal is going to instantly be shunned, shut down, silenced or even mobbed to death.
The moral of the episode isn't "if only we'd come up with a cure in time!" it was "if only people weren't morons."
Correction: due to religious dogma and ignorance.
If they had made all Markab stay in their quarters instead of putting them all together there might have been survivors. The problem was they weren’t sure the illness couldn’t jump species until they had already done that.
I also wonder if Franklin’s cure prevented it from decimating the pak’mara as well, because the virus could jump to them.
I also wonder if Franklin’s cure prevented it from decimating the pak’mara as well, because the virus could jump to them.
Didn't the Markab choose to gather in one place?
ETA - Looks like they basically did: https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/Confessions_and_Lamentations
ETA - Looks like they basically did: https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/Confessions_and_Lamentations
Yeah, they essentially chose to gather together, both because there have been incidents of Markebs being attacked and because the prevailing belief that "sinfulness" (for lack of a better term) of the other races were the cause of the "divine punishment".
Not sure what the deal was with the pak'ma'ra, though one case of infection would have been way more manageable, even if it was as virulent for them as it was for the Markeb. Remember that the Markeb let this thing stew for almost a full year, effectively doing *nothing* to either treat the infection, develop a vaccine or even contain the spread. For the pak'ma'ra it was just that one case and for all we know, the idiot may have just eaten a dead Markeb it found in downbelow.
Not sure what the deal was with the pak'ma'ra, though one case of infection would have been way more manageable, even if it was as virulent for them as it was for the Markeb. Remember that the Markeb let this thing stew for almost a full year, effectively doing *nothing* to either treat the infection, develop a vaccine or even contain the spread. For the pak'ma'ra it was just that one case and for all we know, the idiot may have just eaten a dead Markeb it found in downbelow.
The Markab thought the disease was a divine punishment for their sins, and gathered together in a closed area to pray together for deliverance. Thus doing everything exactly wrong, and accelerating their own extinction.
I believe they were also hoarding toilet paper.
I believe they were also hoarding toilet paper.
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