Politicians have felt free to attack public health authorities to score points in the wake of the pandemic because the profession's achievements have allowed the public to forget just how much damage contagious illness can cause.
"Whether or not Jenner truly saved more lives than any other person, there is no doubt that his pioneering work on immunization laid the groundwork for today’s most effective tool against COVID-19, the vaccine."
Public health is a prerequisite for a functional—or booming—economy. And failing to adequately invest in public health over time has made the pandemic worse.
As Howard Markel, a physician and historian of science, wrote in WIRED last month, “I feel like quoting Yogi Berra: It’s ‘déjà vu all over again,’ albeit a nightmarish blend of several déjàs vu into one.”
Professor Frank Snowden discusses the situation in Italy, the progress of COVID-19 and governments' responses to it, and his career researching the history of epidemics.
Guillaume Lachenal and Gaëtan Thomas argue that an over-reliance on the allure of ‘pandemic precedents’ needs to be replaced with an enhanced understanding of the capacity of present crises to resist historical interpretation.
The earliest effective government responses to epidemic illness in the United States came not in the context of human health, but in the context of livestock.
The Coronavirus Task Force squandered its best chance of containing the virus’s spread. Instead, Americans were left largely blind to the scale of a looming public health catastrophe.
If we commit to strict social distancing now, we can radically curtail the number of new cases and buy time—time to put in place the measures we need to contain the pandemic in a less economically destructive way.
While the White House has stood by President Donald Trump's frequent use of the phrase "Chinese virus" in reference to COVID-19 experts say the argument just doesn't hold up.
Today, the lions are the medical professionals risking their lives to fight the worst pandemic in a century. They are being betrayed by many of their political leaders.
Most American presidents will confront a crisis—or crises—before they leave office, whether it is a natural disaster, war, economic downturn, public health threat or terrorism.
