The feeling you describe of a kind of complacency towards crazy shit that happens in the past is spot on. It was simultaneously an awful and gripping revelation.

The parallels between the modern-day scenes and Kivrin’s timeline are unending. I think it’s why lots of us still enjoyed the book despite the repetition in the prof’s chapters. The one you have illustrated being the most poignant, especially given our own pandemic experience.

Another parallel I enjoyed was the bell ringers and the bell towers - the former having a sense of self-importance and being above quarantine and the latter grudgingly carrying on in the face of greater terror.

This was the most redeeming part of the professor’s chapters - I couldn’t believe how accurate it was. So eerie!