Pandemics & Epidemics: Past, Present, and Future

Pandemics in History

Laurie Garrett, American science journalist and author who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1996, has written extensively on global outbreaks (Ebola: Study of an Outbreak; HIV and National Security: Where are the Links?; I Heard the Sirens Scream: How Americans Responded to the 9/11 and Anthrax Attacks; Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health). In her landmark 1994 book, The Coming Plague, she forecast the great probability of the emergence and global spread of more contagious pathogens. For decades she has sounded the warning about the lack of strategic health policies around the world and been a strong advocate for the development of well-supported public health systems to avoid global catastrophes. 

What happens when the next contagious threat to humans appears, depends on the policies put in place now to safeguard people around the world.

Black stone amulet

Abracadabra triangle

Anthropos killing with the plague

Plague Doctor

Plague in 1665

To prevent influenza!

[Black Death]

Historical Pandemics

• Overview

  • Murphy, Verity. "Past Pandemics That Ravaged Europe." BBC News, BBC, 7 Nov. 2005.

• 165 AD: The Antonine Plague

  • Watts, Edward. “What Rome Learned From the Deadly Antonine Plague of 165 A.D.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 28 Apr. 2020.

• 541-750 AD: The Justinianic Plague

  • Sessa, Kristina. “The Justinianic Plague.”  Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, History Departments at The Ohio State University and Miami University, 12 June 2020.

• 1347 and 1351 AD: Black Death

  • "Black Death." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 9 Apr. 2020.

• 1918-1919 AD: Spanish flu

  • "Influenza pandemic of 1918–19." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 July 2020.

• 1981 AD-present: AIDS

  • "AIDS." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1 Oct. 2020.

• 2019 AD-present: COVID-19

  • "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Videos

• NIH VideoCasting: National Institutes of Health (NIH) VideoCast broadcasts seminars, conferences and meetings live to a world-wide audience over the Internet as a real-time streaming video. Events are recorded and made available for viewers to watch at their convenience as an on-demand video or a downloadable podcast.

• Laden, Lisa, director. We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918, Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2010.

• Van Dyke, Willard and Ben Maddow, directors. The Silent War: Colombia's Fight against Yellow Fever. U.S. National Library of Medicine Digital Collections, National Institutes of Health.

Primary Sources

• A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
• The dreadful visitation in a short account of the progress and effects of the plague, the last time it spread in the city of London in the year … by Daniel Defoe
• The plague at Marseilles consider'd: with remarks on the plague in general; Shewing its Cause and Nature of Infection. With necessary precautions … by Richard Bradley