Before Long COVID Came Post-Polio Syndrome
While the rise of long COVID and its many symptoms may be surprising and difficult to diagnose, post-viral diseases are nothing new.
How Aztecs Reacted to Colonial Epidemics
Colonial exploitation made the indigenous Aztec people disproportionately vulnerable to epidemics. Indigenous accounts show their perspective.
European Colonization and Epidemics Among Native Peoples
What you learned about the diseases that decimated Native communities is probably wrong.
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.
Surviving a Pandemic, in 1918
A century ago, Catholic nuns from Philadelphia recalled what it was like to tend to the needy and the sick during the great influenza pandemic of 1918.
Could Foreign Policy Stop Another Pandemic?
Diseases know no borders. International cooperation and solidarity, say scholars, are as essential as funding.
Boccaccio’s Medicine
In the Decameron of Boccaccio, friends tell one another stories of love to while away the hours of quarantine.
When Coffee Cargo Was Quarantined
In the 1800s, sick passengers weren’t blamed for disease epidemics—their baggage and cargo was.