Stories

In 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

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The 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

On 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

Today, 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

It 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

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

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

By 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 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

In 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

By 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.

By Esyllt Jones
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an outpouring of commentary from disease historians.

By 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.

By Lawrence Elliott
During a particularly bad wave of Covid-19 in his province, one Canadian premier declared to the assembled media, “Covid is evil.”