Black Death to COVID-19 – what we can learn from past pandemics
In 1346 an unknown miasma – a noxious form of ‘bad air’ – swept across the Middle East, through the Horn of Africa, and consumed Europe within five years. The Black Plague spread quickly. It did not discriminate. And it caused massive mortality.
The question is: what can we learn from it, when it comes to COVID-19?
A new webinar by Hendrik Poinar, director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, highlights parallels and differences between past pandemics and the current one we are all living through.
“Today, genomic epidemiology is unprecedented,” explains Poinar. Yet many of the same fears persist. “Plagues are symptoms and expressions of human relationships,” he says, drawing on his research into Black Plague genetics and exploring past pandemics from the perspective of biological anthropology.
Poinar’s research, which involves using ancient DNA isolated from victims of past pandemics (The Black Death and The Plague of Justinian), addresses questions about ‘what caused’ these pandemics, and how they have evolved since. His work raises important questions about how pandemics reveal global inequities, and why diseases cross borders, while cures do not.
View Poinar’s webinar – From Black Death to COVID-19 – what we can learn from past pandemics – to learn about historic patterns and similarities between human biological and cultural responses to the current pandemic and the ones that came before.
This webinar is the first of 10 in a series, Expert Perspectives on Pandemics, which forms part of the Master of Science in Global Health program’s global health symposium. Stay tuned for more webinars which will be posted online in the coming weeks.
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