They tried to avoid the plague like the plague,
but they couldn’t flee the fleas

Did you not witness the stupid during Covid ?

i hear they didn’t have microchips in their vaccines back then

Well, they were rubbing shit into their open wounds so you tell me.

You see, the phrase didn’t exist at the time, so they didn’t know they had to avoid it

Is this evil jonkler cart reference?

Because they thought it was infringing on their freedom when told to wear masks and social distance

They did. Your confusion is on the meaning of the commonly used phrase.

Avoid it like the plague actually means you’re going to do almost nothing but hope you don’t die.

You can watch a very historically accurate and 100% true documentary on netflix: The Decameron