epidemics

While smallpox was ravaging late 18th century Britain, John Haygarth thought up of a plan to pay people for public health compliance.

Nearly two centuries later, many tribes remain suspicious of the drive to get them vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Disease reshapes our lives in surprising ways.

Three hundred years ago, Cotton Mather starred in a debate about treating smallpox that tore Boston apart.

In the 1800s, they helped lay the groundwork for the anti-vaccine movement.

Scientists explain how viruses, like Covid-19, spill over from animals to people, and what we must do to stop the next pandemic.

In ACT UP, belonging was not conferred by blood. Care was offered when you joined others on the street with the intent to bring the AIDS crisis to an end.

An oral history with 25 fashion luminaries, highlighting a previously untold history of the AIDS crisis.

US monuments and memorials have overlooked frontline workers and people of color affected by past epidemics. Will we repeat history?

Once the COVID crisis is over, it may take us quite some time to process and psychologically recover from this tragedy.

A history of inflammatory illness epithets.

From plague times to the coronavirus, the history of our flawed ability to process mass casualty events.

Racism in medicine, including through forced vaccinations, has created skepticism toward public health campaigns.

The 1850 novel reveals disturbing continuities between the 19th century cholera pandemics and global health crises today.

Using history to guide us in the difficult present.

Native communities in North America have been particularly hard-hit by COVID-19. This isn't the first time.

The diseases that prove best suited to global expansion are those that best exploit humans' global networks and behaviors in a given age.

From the 1918 Spanish flu to Covid-19, broken treaties have been the foundation of health crises among Native people.

Images from a century ago of people doing their best to keep others and themselves safe.

Reflections on reading Nietzsche in Alaska in the early days of Covid-19.