Interesting article

Just a couple of things here.

With regard to the Black Death the most frequent claim for cause was not so much witches but the clergy for not maintaining the spiritual health of the community by not praying enough. See the work of Diane Zahler (2009) The Black Death

Embedded In some cultures the evil eye is still prominent in Mediterranean cultures. See this interesting commentary on the Evil Eye as presented in Galatians by Susan Eastman (2001) [doi.org]

And an interesting statement by DeWitte and Wood. Studies shown from skeletons discovered in London in 1980 that although the plague seemed to hit indiscriminately, the most prominent victims were those in ill-health or suffering malnutrition.

“The results suggest the Black Death did not kill indiscriminately, but it did discriminate less sharply than death normally does."

It has been a common trope in the Horror genre that evil spreads like a disease, or is an actual disease see especially the works of John Carpenter and Freddie Francis in film and Richard Matheson in literature.

Not exactly a new idea, but it is interesting that some people have taken the trouble to support it with good statistical data. There is of course the old urban myth, that the legends of vampires started with the disease rabies. Because mythical vampires and the disease share so many things in common, such as fear of bright lights and shiny things like church ornaments and of course running water, rabies being also know as Hydrophobia. Plus, both cause increased sexual desire, in the advanced stages a shriveled corpse like appearance both are spread by biting especially, while in Europe at least, the Balkans region is the geographical centre for both of them.

Possibly

very interesting