10 What can we learn from the nervous sequelae of past pandemics?

Dr Mark Honigsbaum, medical historian and senior lecturer, City University of London. A regular contributor to The Observer & The Lancet, the author of five books including The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris (New York and London: Norton; Hurst, 2019), The Fever Trail: In Search of the Cure for Malaria (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2002), and Living With Enza: The Forgotten Story of Britain and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 (Macmillan, 2009), which was longlisted for the Royal Society science book of the year in 2009. A specialist in the history of pandemics and infectious disease, his academic work combines insights from the medical and environmental humanities and the philosophy and sociology of science. His current research focuses on the phenomenon of ‘vaccine hesitancy’. Through case studies of recent vaccine controversies he seeks to understand the role that the media and partial or incomplete scientific knowledge of vaccines plays in suspicion of this valuable medical technology. He is also developing a project interrogating the phenomenon of pandemic remembrance and the tension between narrative framings of Covid-19 as a ‘crisis’ and collective experiences of grief and loss enabled by connective digital technologies. Abstract Pandemics of respiratory disease have long been associated with peculiar fatigue states and an array of neurological conditions. However, in the absence of compelling biological evidence, ...
Source: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry - Category: Neurosurgery Authors: Tags: Speakers Short Biographies and Abstracts Source Type: research