Generally, a person may be punished for sedition only when he or she makes statements that create a Clear and Present Danger to rights that the government may lawfully protect (schenck v. united states, 249 U.S. 47, 39 S. Ct. 247, 63 L. Ed. 470 [1919]).
The epidemic reached its zenith in the years 1348 to 1350, though the disease never vanished entirely. It is widely believed that the cause of the Black Death was bubonic plague, an infectious and fatal illness spread by rodents and the fleas infesting them.
The Black Plague that devastated Europe in the 1300s began when infected rats in China passed the disease to fleas, which then passed it to humans. The line ashes, ashes in Ring Around the Rosy may relate to sneezing, an early symptom of the plague. Symptoms of the Black Plague included high fever.