Archived Webinar
The Zoom webinar with medical historian Mark Honigsbaum aired May 12, 2020, as the second program in the "Contextualizing COVID-19" series. Watch a recording in the player above.
Description
In his book, "The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris," medical historian Mark Honigsbaum narrates the last century of scientific struggle against an enduring enemy: deadly contagious disease. In this video, drawing upon the history of the influenza pandemics of the 19th and 20th centuries, Honigsbaum discusses the parallels — and contrasts — with COVID-19. The past is full of lessons that can inform the present as we forge a path forward in this current pandemic. Moderator: Sabrina Sholts, Curator of Biological Anthropology at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Contextualizing COVID-19
The global spread of COVID-19 has caused dramatic changes in our daily lives and left many wondering, “How did we get here?” and “How can we do better?” The exhibit Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World explores the factors that increase the risk that new diseases will emerge and provides an intellectual framework for understanding how viruses can spill over from animals and become a global pandemic. In conjunction with the exhibition, we hosted two programs to help put COVID-19 into context.
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