New commentary paper in American Journal of Public Health
Gerardo Chowell has written a new commentary piece. You can read it here: Political Determinants of Health: Has COVID-19 Exposed the Worst of It? | AJPH | Vol. Issue (aphapublications.org)
New paper out:
We are proud to have published yet another paper from our Social Science Meets Biology | CAS (cas-nor.no) project:
Read press release from OsloMet here: New research sheds light on mortality rate disparities in Alaska during the 1918 flu pandemic – OsloMet
Read full paper here: Death on the permafrost: Revisiting the 1918-20 influenza pandemic in Alaska using death certificates | American Journal of Epidemiology | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
Abstract: The 1918-20 influenza pandemic devastated Alaska’s Indigenous populations. We report on quantitative analyses of pandemic deaths due to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) using information from Alaska death certificates dating between 1915 and 1921 (n=7,147). Goals include a reassessment of pandemic death numbers, analysis of P&I deaths beyond 1919, estimates of excess mortality patterns overall and by age using intercensal population estimates based on Alaska’s demographic history, and comparisons between Alaska Native (AN) and non-AN residents. Results indicate that ANs experienced 83% of all P&I deaths and 87% of all-cause excess deaths during the pandemic. AN mortality was 8.1 times higher than non-AN mortality. Analyses also uncovered previously unknown mortality peaks in 1920. Both subpopulations showed characteristically high mortality of young adults, possibly due to imprinting with the 1889-90 pandemic virus, but their age-specific mortality patterns were different: non-AN mortality declined after age 25-29 and stayed relatively low for the elderly, while AN mortality increased after age 25-29, peaked at age 40-44, and remained high up to age 64. This suggests a relative lack of exposure to H1-type viruses pre-1889 among AN persons. In contrast, non-AN persons, often temporary residents, may have gained immunity before moving to Alaska.
Ny pandemi-podkast
Professor Mamelund om influensapandemier. – Goffeng På Leting | Podcast on Spotify
Lytt gjerne. Det ble en spennende samtale med Espen Goffeng om historiske pandemier, risikofaktorer og konsekvenser. Hva er egentlig long Covid? Hvor mye Covid er det egentlig i denne tilstanden? Visste du at det fantes en “long spanskesyken” i 1918?
Vi prater også Covidreaksjoner, politisering, Spanskesyken, Russian Flu, Hong Kong-virus og pandemier som sivilisasjoners kanskje uheldigste bivirkning.
Call for Applications: Visiting Researcher Program, Fall 2024
The Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC) invites applications for our Fall 2024 Visiting Researcher program. Preference will be given to researchers with potential for obtaining external funding, including Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship applicants.
One applicant will be selected based on their research experience and interests. We expect that the Visiting Researcher will contribute concrete ideas for – and at least initial drafting of – a funding proposal during their stay in fall 2024 (minimum 2 weeks, preferably up to 4 weeks). These proposals will be led by the Visiting Researcher with PANSOC as a partner and submitted to local funding bodies corresponding to the researchers’ affiliations/countries or to the Research Council of Norway or NordForsk with us as PI, as appropriate.
We encourage applications from researchers in all fields with interests in the social, economic, and biological aspects of historical, current, and future pandemics. We are particularly interested in topics such as:
- Disparities in disease outcomes or impacts of public health measures based on socioeconomic, ethnic, health, and/or other inequalities.
- Syndemic interactions with non-communicable diseases and chronic health conditions, including long-term health impacts of pandemics.
- Long-term impacts of pandemics, including on mental health through factors such as bereavement or social dislocation, and economic indicators.
- Research that links immunology and virology to the social science of pandemics.
- Relationships between infectious disease epidemics and other crises such as wars or extreme climate events/climate change.
- Comparisons of pandemics with other types of crises such as famine and natural disasters.
The Visiting Researcher program will cover transportation costs to Oslo and accommodation up to 50,000 NOK.
To apply, please send 1) a CV, 2) a description (1-2 pages) of your idea for a joint proposal, 3) tentative budget for the visit, and 4) anticipated timing or availability for travel to Oslo to Svenn-Erik Mamelund (masv@oslomet.no).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 5 July 2024
23 May Seminar: Forgotten Pandemic? Revisiting the “Spanish” Influenza on the First World War’s Macedonian Front
For the penultimate Pandemics & Society Seminar of our Spring 2024 series, we are pleased to welcome Christos-Stavros Konstantopoulos (McGill University). The seminar will be held on Thursday, 23 May at the normal time (1600 CET). More information about our speaker and the presentation is below. You can sign up for email notifications about the seminar series, including the Zoom details, here.
Abstract
Although interest in the history of the “Spanish” influenza pandemic has risen over the past two decades, its connection with the First World War has not yet been fully explored. To the degree that is has been the object of study, it has mostly been approached through the lens of the Western Front. In this presentation, we will talk about the influenza pandemic on the Great War’s Macedonian Front, which is the subject of a larger PhD research project comparing the influenza’s impact on the British, French, and Greek troops fighting on that front. We will start by discussing why that front is of interest to scholars researching the pandemic. Subsequently, based on Hellenic Army data drawn from reports of the army’s medical officers, we will touch on three preliminary findings: a)that the temporal pattern of the pandemic in 1918 differed from that of the Western Front, with the influenza reaching Macedonia more in a single long wave instead of two distinct waves; b)that the scale of influenza-related mortality on the Macedonia front dwarfed mortality from diseases that have captured most of the interest of medical officers at the time as well as of later historians, such as malaria, typhus, or dysentery; and c)that epidemic and endemic diseases, and in particular influenza and malaria, seem to have been correlated rather than distinct.
About the Speaker
Christos-Stavros Konstantopoulos is a first-year PhD student at McGill University, researching the “Spanish” influenza pandemic on the Macedonian Front of the First World War, in particular comparing how it affected the British, French, and Greek troops fighting on that front. He previously studied History at the University of Cambridge and Comparative Political Science at the University of Oxford, before serving in the Hellenic Army’s History Directorate. He has worked for the SCHOOLPOL project of the University of Oxford, researching the evolution of education policies in OECD countries since the Second World War. His broader interests include the history of health, population, education, and development.
Ny kronikk: Akademisk restitusjon
Idrettsutøvere vet at restitusjon, periodisering og alternativ trening er viktig for utøvelse og fremgang. I kronikken Akademisk restitusjon (khrono.no) hevder senterleder Mamelund at det samme gjelder for akademisk arbeid og fremgang.
Han mener ikke at akademikere, skribenter, kunstnere og folk i frie yrker har et særegent behov for restitusjon/sabbat i sitt arbeid. Men han hevder at dem i disse gruppene som definerer jobb som livsstil/hobby i det daglige kan lære noe av idrettsutøvere.
Hva tenker du/dere?
Gerardo Chowell at PANSOC in May-June
While in Norway, Gerardo Chowell, Prof. at Georgia State University (left in the photo), will be conducting a comprehensive analysis of shifts in income-based poverty within Chile at the comuna level, the most precise administrative division in the country. This investigation focuses on the periods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. He leverages data from a national socio-economic characterization survey carried out in 2017, 2020, and 2022 to accomplish this. This rich dataset provides a detailed view of socio-economic changes over time.
Following this analysis, our research team plans to quantify excess mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. This subsequent study will examine mortality variations across different levels of poverty while also accounting for age group differences, thereby offering insights into the pandemic’s unequal impacts on various socio-demographic groups.
2 May Seminar: Socioeconomic mortality differences during the Great Influenza in Spain
For the fifth Pandemics & Society Seminar of our Spring 2024 series, we are pleased to welcome Sergi Basco (Universitat Barcelona). The seminar will be held on Thursday, 2 May at the normal time (1600 CET). More information about our speaker and the presentation is below. You can sign up for email notifications about the seminar series, including the Zoom details, here.
Abstract (and link to paper)
Despite being one of the deadliest viruses in history, there is limited information on the socioeconomic factors that affected mortality rates during the Great Influenza Pandemic. In this study, we use occupation-province level data to investigate the relationship between influenza excess mortality rates and occupation-related status in Spain. We obtain three main results. Firstly, individuals in low-income occupations experienced the highest excess mortality, pointing to a notable income gradient. Secondly, professions that involved more social interaction were associated with a higher excess of mortality, regardless of income. Finally, we observe a substantial rural mortality penalty, even after controlling for income-related occupational groups. Based on this evidence, it seems that the high number of deaths was caused by not self-isolating. Some individuals did not quarantine themselves because they could not afford to miss work. In rural areas, home confinement was likely more limited because their inhabitants did not have immediate access to information about the pandemic or fully understand its impact due to their limited experience handling influenza outbreaks.
About the Speaker
Sergi Basco is Associate Professor of Economics (with tenure) in Universitat Barcelona. He received his PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His work focusses on understanding the effects of globalization and economic crises. His academic work has been published, among others, in Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of International Economics, European Economic Review, Journal of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, World Development, and Economics and Human Biology. He has published the books Housing Bubbles: Origins and Consequences (Winner of the Catalan Society of Economics Prize 2020) and Pandemics, Economics and Inequality: Lessons from the Spanish Flu (joint with J. Domènech and J. Rosés).