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A flower.

A Structural History of American Public Health Narratives

Rereading Priscilla Wald’s "Contagious" and Nancy Tomes’ "Gospel of Germs" amidst a 21st-century pandemic.
by Amy Mackin via Assay Journal on March 25, 2023
Collage illustration showing many faces behind a zig-zagging line graph.

Without Context, COVID Tallies Are Misleading

Counting both uninfected and infected people helps us better understand a pandemic.
by Jim Downs via Los Angeles Times on December 19, 2021
Engraving of the stowage plans of the slave ship Brooks, 1814.

How Transatlantic Slave Trade Shaped Epidemiology Today

Slave ships and colonial plantations created environments that enabled doctors to study how diseases spread.
by Jim Downs via TIME on September 2, 2021
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We’re Catching More Diseases From Wild Animals, and It’s Our Fault.

Scientists explain how viruses, like Covid-19, spill over from animals to people, and what we must do to stop the next pandemic.
via Retro Report on January 27, 2021
A graphic depicting covid-19 with a plane on top of it.

Emerging Diseases, Re-Emerging Histories

The diseases that prove best suited to global expansion are those that best exploit humans' global networks and behaviors in a given age.
by Monica H. Green via Centaurus on July 27, 2020

America's Devastating First Plague and the Birth of Epidemiology

In the 1790s a plague struck the new American nation and killed thousands. Noah Webster told the story of pandemics and invented a field.
by Joshua Kendall via TIME on April 4, 2020
The Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, PA.

An American Outbreak of Death and Panic

On the eve of America’s Bicentennial, a mysterious illness terrifies the country and sends disease detectives racing the clock to find answers.
by Alexandra Coria via Medium on March 30, 2020

How the Bubonic Plague Almost Came to America

A Pompous Doctor, a Racist Bureaucracy, and More. From the book "Black Death at the Golden Gate".
by David K. Randall via Literary Hub on May 9, 2019
The media fueled fears of a parrot-fever pandemic; then the story went into reverse. Illustration by Laurent Cilluffo.

The Spread

Jill Lepore on disease outbreaks of pandemic proportions, media scares, and the parrot-fever panic of 1930.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 25, 2009
An eraser erasing a drawing of man.

R.F.K., Jr., Anthony Fauci, and the Revolt Against Expertise

It used to be progressives who distrusted the experts. What happened?
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on May 19, 2025
A stuffed bear in a room of empty children's beds at Willowbrook Hospital.

The Horrors of Hepatitis Research

The abusive experiments on mentally disabled children at Willowbrook State School were only one part of a much larger unethical research program.
by Carl Elliott via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024
Human figures colored either blue or green.

Mortality Wars

Estimating life and death in Iraq and Gaza.
by Shaan Sachdev via The Drift on July 8, 2024
Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) during a House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic in Washington. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
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Pandemic Origin Stories are Laced Through With Politics

Efforts to pinpoint early cases have been complicated, and in some cases compromised, by distractions and diversions.
by E. Thomas Ewing via Made By History on April 19, 2023
Designed picture of Lambert Adolphe Quetelet and Ancel Keys.

The Strange History of BMI, the Body Mass Index

BMI is a simple calculation, but how it is translated into a diagnosis is complex and flawed.
via STAT on March 9, 2023
Two women baking in a kitchen using a gas stove.

The Forgotten Gas Stove Wars

We’ve been fighting over gas stoves for decades.
by Rebecca Leber via Vox on February 5, 2023
Picture of a man at a bathhouse in the early 20th century.

Asking Gay Men to Be Careful Isn’t Homophobia

Public-health officials don’t need to tiptoe around how monkeypox is currently being transmitted.
by Jim Downs via The Atlantic on August 13, 2022
Statue of three women scientists.

The Unsung Heroes Who Ended a Deadly Plague

How a team of fearless American women overcame medical skepticism to stop whooping cough, a vicious infectious disease, and save countless lives.
by Richard Conniff via Smithsonian on February 23, 2022
Advertisement during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

Political Accountability and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Why do some political incumbents adopt aggressive measures to slow the spread of infectious diseases while others do not?
by Yuri M. Zhukov, Jacob Walden via Broadstreet on December 10, 2021
A hand moving the weight on a scale
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What's in a Number? Some Research Shows That a Lower B.M.I. Isn't Always Better.

Biased ideas about a link between body size and health have led many people to dismiss unexpected scientific findings.
via Retro Report on November 17, 2021
Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Other Obsession

Known as a master of horror, he also understood the power—and the limits—of science.
by Daniel Engber via The Atlantic on June 11, 2021
Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past diners eating outdoors in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood last month.
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Revisiting a 19th Century Medical Idea Could Help Address Covid-19

When germ theory displaced the idea of "miasmas" we lost important knowledge about tackling airborne disease.
by Melanie A. Kiechle via Made By History on April 21, 2021
A painted picture of someone receiving a vaccine

History Shows Americans Have Always Been Wary of Vaccines

Even so, many diseases have been tamed. Will Covid-19 be next?
by Alicia Ault via Smithsonian on January 26, 2021

In U.S. Cities, The Health Effects Of Past Housing Discrimination Are Plain To See

Explore maps of 142 cities to see the lingering harms of the racist lending policies known as redlining.
by Maria Godoy via NPR on November 19, 2020
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Health Risks of Vaping: Lessons From the Battle With Big Tobacco

Like cigarette manufacturers decades ago, e-cigarette makers have pitched their products as fun and safe. But nobody knows what the risks are.
via Retro Report on November 17, 2020
One man in white surgical coat and cap examines a cow in an enclosed pen.
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The Idea of Herd Immunity to Manage the Coronavirus Should Ring Alarm Bells

The Trump administration reportedly could be taking us down a dangerous path.
by Rebecca Kaplan via Made By History on October 30, 2020

When Schools Closed in 1916, Some Students Never Returned

Research into the long-term consequences of a polio outbreak found that older students are at highest risk for harm.
by Stephen Mihm via Bloomberg on June 26, 2020

The Cure and the Disease

Social Darwinism from AIDS to Covid-19.
by Erik Baker via The Drift on June 19, 2020

Historical Insights on COVID-19, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, and Racial Disparities

Illuminating a path forward.
by Lakshmi Krishnan, S. Michelle Ogunwole, Lisa A. Cooper via Annals Of Internal Medicine on June 5, 2020

Why Humanity Will Probably Botch the Next Pandemic, Too

A conversation with Mike Davis about what must be done to combat the COVID-19 pandemic – and all the other monsters still to come.
by Mike Davis, Eric Levitz via Intelligencer on April 30, 2020

Don’t Look For Patient Zeros

Naming the first people to fall sick often leads to abuse.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on April 8, 2020
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