- COVID and our elders: a conversation with historian Megan DaviesIn January 2022, historian Megan Davies (author of Into the House of Old: a history of residential care in British Columbia) launched “COVID in the … Read more
- UPDATED Pandemics past and presentFREE COURSE. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to learn first-hand from internationally recognized scholars based at University of Manitoba. Online or in-person.
- The Value of a NurseThe pandemic has made visible long-standing and systemic problems in the Canadian healthcare system. It is a publicly funded system, valued and paid for by … Read more
- Diary of a critical care doctor: PrefaceOn February 27, 2020, I started a journal, not sure where such writings would lead. While I have written many scientific papers and reports, I … Read more
- Imagining Public Health in the Early 19th CenturyToday, a significant portion of the global population has ready access to vaccines, clean water, and universal healthcare. COVID-19 has, in part, been such a … Read more
- Diary of the Cholera Horror in LiverpoolIt was the year of 1832, May 17th to be exact, when the distemper had begun in Liverpool.[1] The city flooded with concern. People had … Read more
- ‘Bring out the Burkers!’What Can Conspiracies Tell Us About Society? Cholera is a frightening bacterial disease that could become fatal in as little as twelve hours.[1] Today, we … Read more
- Does Cholera Now Prevail?September 4, 1854 After 1849 I had hoped to never see Asiatic Cholera in London again. The hospitals have been filling up with cases since … Read more
- On the Line: Love and Rage and PandemicsBy Esyllt Jones
One of my unfinished pandemic-era tasks has been to write a short biographical piece on Helen Jury Armstrong, the organizer of working class women, and the embodiment of love and fire in the Winnipeg General Strike. Here, I explore how the influenza pandemic highlighted her unique brand of labour activism. - Postage & PestilencePostage Stamps and Public Health Postage stamps, with their mass reproduction and global dissemination, provide a means to promote awareness for a wide range of … Read more
- Pandemic Perspectives: a Conversation about Hamnet and JudithIn conversation: Judith Owens with Lynne Fernandez Literary scholar Judith Owens and political economist Lynn Fernandez discuss O’Farrell’s moving plague novel. Lynne Fernandez (LF): Judith, … Read more
- “Carried Away”: Alice Munro and HistoryBy Esyllt Jones
A century ago, people living through World War I, the global influenza pandemic, and waves of social unrest experienced a world in turmoil. These world-historical events must have been interconnected, and those connections must have affected people’s lives. - On pandemic history and pandemic amnesiaBy Esyllt Jones
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an outpouring of commentary from disease historians. - Containing Infection and Rebellion at Panama’s Palo Seco LeprosariumBy Caroline Lieffers
When the United States of America took control of the Panama Canal Zone in 1904, there were widespread reports of about a dozen people with Hansen’s disease—more often called leprosy—living in seclusion on the outskirts of Panama City. - Pandemics and the Epidemiological TriangleBy Lawrence Elliott
During a particularly bad wave of Covid-19 in his province, one Canadian premier declared to the assembled media, “Covid is evil.”