Pandemics & Society webinar 8 October, “Age-specific mortality patterns across influenza pandemics: evidence from all-cause mortality data across multiple populations”.
For the second Pandemics & Society Seminar of our Fall 2026 series we are pleased to welcome Lauren Steele (RMIT University). The seminar will be held on Thursday, 8 October at the normal time (16:00 CEST). More information about the speaker and the presentation is below. You can sign up for email notifications about the seminar series, including the Zoom details, here.
About the talk:
This talk aims to shed light on the impact of age on mortality risk across four influenza pandemics in multiple populations. I will present new research documenting that the absolute and percentage mortality patterns emphasized different aspects of age-specific risk across pandemics, illustrating that the metric choice influences how age patterns are interpreted. By comparing mortality data across multiple populations, this research challenges prior assumptions based on US-centric data and highlights the heterogeneity of age-specific risk across pandemics.
Read full paper here: Age-specific mortality patterns across influenza pandemics: evidence from all-cause mortality data across multiple populations | International Journal of Epidemiology | Oxford Academic
About the speaker:
Lauren Steele is a postdoctoral researcher at RMIT University, Australia. Dr. Steele earned her doctoral degree at University of Queensland in 2026.