Pandemics & COVID-19

This is not the first time that humans have confronted pandemic disease (from plague to SARS and influenza, from smallpox and measles to cholera and HIV). Historians have long studied these pandemics, taught their lessons, and preached to be prepared for the next one. Today, more than ever, insight about past pandemics and how they transform (and deform) societies is essential as we survive and rebuild. This page offers links to Origins’ many essays, podcasts, and videos on pandemics. Enjoy and be well.

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members of the red cross during the 1918 flu pandemic
What Came Next?: Reflections on the Aftermath(s) of the 1918–19 Flu Pandemic in the Age of COVID
Motorcycles lined up on Main St. in Sturgis, South Dakota, 2014.
“Is the rally really worth it?” The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the Costs of Neoliberalism
students wearing masks sitting at desks in a classroom writing
Pandemic Pedagogies (Classroom Activities)
An HIV AIDS patient in Mozambique
What HIV Teaches Us: The Need for Affordable Health Care
Cover of Health, Healing and Illness in African History by Rebekah Lee.
Africa's Medical History Revealed
A COVID-19 antigen testing center in Warora, Maharashtra, India.
The Deep Roots of India’s COVID-19 Crisis
President Biden, standing in front of a blue flag with an eagle emblem
First 100 Days of the Biden Administration: Insights from History
Cover of Science under Fire Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America by Andrew Jewett.
Science Beseiged
This 1952 illustration by Robert Thom of Sims' gynecological experiments involving enslaved women is part of a larger collection entitled Great Moments in Medicine.
Black Women, Medical Racism, and COVID-19
Lt. Cmdr. Raben Talvo (left), and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Angela Ramirez (right) administer the San Diego Naval Medical Center's first monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment to a COVID-19-positive patient, January 26, 2021.
The Rhyme of History: What the Black Death tells us about COVID-19’s Aftermath
Engraving of Roman plague doctor, Schnabel c.1656.
Quarantino: Plague and the Origins of Social Distancing
A red AIDS ribbon outlined in candles
The Global History of HIV
Port of Buenos Aires
Cholera and Argentina: Insights for COVID-19
Sign Reading Mask On Stop the Spread
American Individualism & COVID-19 (Lesson Plan)
doctor holding a COVID swab
Pandemics and Public Policy
nurses holding stretchers
The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic vs. the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic
Plague Doctor
Responding to Pandemics—Both Past and Present
glass vaccine vials with labels that read "vaccine"
You Might Feel a Pinch: Vaccination Laws in the Era of COVID-19
Women from Guadalupe photographed at Ellis Island on their way to Montreal to take on domestic positions, April 6th , 1911.
Black Canadians and Pandemics
Group of people wearing masks
Going Viral: COVID Conspiracies in Historical Perspective
woman looking at hypodermic needle
The Blame Game: The USSR’s Response to HIV/AIDS
Employees operating a testing center at the Walmart Supercenter in Elizabethville, PA, August, 2020.
Licenses to Ill: Health Passes and Surveillance
The flag of the World Health Organization, founded in 1948, flies over the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Tuberculosis and the Optimism of Biomedicine
The port of İzmir, pictured here in 1883, was an Ottoman quarantine station.
Pandemics in Ottoman History: Plague, Cholera, and Influenza