Theodore M. Brown
University of Rochester, USA
Title: The COVID-19 Pandemic in Historical Perspective
Biography
Biography: Theodore M. Brown
Abstract
In these times of the worldwide COVID-19 crisis, it is useful to turn to medical and public health history for desperately needed perspective and applicable lessons. By looking closely at the past we can gain a better understanding of the complex epidemiology of pandemics and of the need for rigorous data and its robust collection, of the value of social mitigation and other non-pharmaceutical interventions, of the impact of resistance to these measures based either on political opposition or cumulative fatigue, of the success of vaccines and other biomedical interventions and the differential demographic distribution of these measures, of the impact of pandemics on national populations, economies, and health systems, and of the role of international health organizations and global health regulations. I have addressed some of these issues in two of my recent publications in the American Journal of Public Health: “COVID-19, China, the World Health Organization, and the Limits of International Health Diplomacy” (August, 2020 AJPH) and “The COVID-19 Pandemic in Historical Perspective: An AJPH Dossier” (March, 2021 AJPH). In this presentation I will summarize my prior publications and update them with data from more recent developments.