COVID-19 Is Hitting Black and Poor Communities the Hardest
The viral pandemic is underscoring fault lines in access to care for those on margins.
Anthony S. Fauci on Pandemic Preparedness
Before he led the effort to contain COVID-19, the nation's top infectious disease expert published several papers about pandemic preparedness. Here are two.
Viral Mutation for the Perplexed
We all know viruses mutate. But how does that happen, and what does it mean for how we can treat diseases caused by viruses?
How America Brought the 1957 Influenza Pandemic to a Halt
Microbiologist Maurice Hilleman saw it coming, so the country made 40 million doses of the vaccine within months.
Teaching Pandemics Syllabus
Readings on the history of quarantine, contagious disease, viruses, infections, and epidemics offer important context for the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Jennifer Nuzzo: “We’re Definitely Not Overreacting” to COVID-19
Johns Hopkins epidemiologist and infectious disease expert Jennifer Nuzzo on why vaccines aren’t the answer, how COVID-19 is unique, and how to stay safe.
Your Brain Evolved to Hoard Supplies and Shame Others for Doing the Same
Have people gone mad? How can one individual be overfilling their own cart, while shaming others who are doing the same?
Disease Theory in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man
Shelley's third novel, about the sole survivor of a global plague, draws on the now-outdated miasma theory of disease.
“The Public Health” in 1840
A pamphlet published in 1840 advocates a four-pronged approach to public healthcare that sounds remarkably like our own.