On November 12, 2020, the Center for the History of Medicine hosted its 19th Annual Horace W. Davenport Lecture in the Medical Humanities, presented by Dr. Powel Kazanjian. Michigan Medicine’s Lead Public Relations Representative, Kara Gavin, wrote an excellent summary of Dr. Kazanjian’s wonderful lecture. If you missed the lecture, it is available on the Read more

Recently Dr. Navarro was asked to join WNYC’s “The Takeaway” and WBEZ’s “Reset” programs to discuss the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic and lessons we might apply to today’s COVID-19 pandemic.  Listen below: The Takeaway: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/lessons-learned-1918-flu-pandemic Reset: https://www.wbez.org/stories/how-does-covid-19-compare-to-the-1918-flu-pandemic/0b898451-0e0e-4a58-879c-3533afbf4cf0

On May 6, 2020, Dr. Markel appeared on C-Span’s “Washington Journal” live program to discuss past pandemics and the lessons we might apply from them as we deal with COVID-19. Watch here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?471792-5/washington-journal-dr-howard-markel-discusses-covid-19-past-pandemics&event=471792&playEvent

Recently, Dr. Navarro discussed the history of San Francisco’s Anti-Mask League, formed in the winter of 1919 as the city wrestled with its influenza epidemic, and how social distancing measures then compare to the experience of Americans today. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/04/29/pence-face-mask-coronavirus-1918-flu

Slate‘s Mike Pesca and his team recently asked Dr. Navarro to speak about the Center’s influenzaarchive.org project as well as the lessons of the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic on “The Gist” podcast.  Listen to the two-part podcast below. “Social Distance a Century Ago,” April 21, 2020 “Good News, Bad News,” April 22, 2020

The New Yorker: “How the Protests Have Changed the Pandemic” Tampa Bay News 10: “Is Florida flattening the curve? Here’s how to read the charts” Associated Press: “Experts worry CDC is sidelined in coronavirus response” Forward: “Pandemics have always incited anti-Semitism. Here’s the history you need to know” Philadelphia ABC 6 News: “US coronavirus toll passes Read more

In a recent piece on the differences in response and outcomes between San Francisco and Los Angeles to the 1918 influenza pandemic, Los Angeles Times journalist Jim Rainey relied heavily on the Center’s The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919 digital archive and city essays as well as data and an interview provided by Dr. Navarro.  Read the Read more

Listen to “The Sound of Ideas” from April 14, 2020 for the lessons of 1918 and how they might relate to the COVID-19 pandemic today.  The program begins at the 22:45 mark. https://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-ideas/ohio-manufacturers-step-up-to-make-ppe-lessons-from-the-1918-pandemic-take-out-tuesday

Recently, Dr. Markel lent his expertise in a video discussion of the Ken Burns-produced documentary The Gene: An Intimate History, based on the bestselling book by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee.  Dr. Markel appears at the 15-minute mark.  

The short answer: we don’t really know. “Modeling is just one piece of data among a mosaic of data spread out on the floor that has not yet been put into place,” Dr. Markel commented. Read the full story here: