Centre for Research on Pandemics & Society (PANSOC)
An OsloMet Centre of Research Excellence studying the societal aspects of pandemics
Senterleder Mamelund har skrevet ny kronikk i Aftenposten og spør “Er vi så fornøyde med egen håndtering at vi sparer oss til fant og blir dårligere forberedt på neste pandemi?”. du kan lese kronikken her: Svenskene ruster opp pandemiforskningen. Hvorfor ikke Norge? (aftenposten.no)
The hunt for the virus causing the 1918 influenza pandemic and how it has informed science and preparedness for future pandemics. Jeffery Taubenberger (NIAID) and John Oxford (QMUL) spoke at The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters as guests of our CAS project November 8th. You can watch a recording of their talks here The hunt for the virus causing the 1918 influenza pandemic – FilMet (oslomet.no) and also a pod-cast they did here: Part I: Reflections on a pandemic – Viten og snakkis (oslomet.no). Lisa Sattenspiel Tanner and Svenn-Erik Mamelund also did a follow-up podcast Part 2: Reflections on a pandemic – Viten og snakkis (oslomet.no)
Regjeringen vil kutte Folkehelseinstituttets budsjett. Det varsler ille for neste pandemi. Les ny kronikk av senterleder Mamelund her: Dårlig politikk for neste pandemi – Ytring (nrk.no)
Centre leader Mamelund has been interviewed about our ongoing CAS-project: Why did he become interested in pandemic studies? What is our project about? What have we done so far? And why is curiosity-driven research important and CAS so good for our project?
You can read the interview here: Meet the Project: Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes – CAS
We are proud to announce that one of our earlier masters’ students just published a paper in BMC Public Health.
Results show that vaccine hesitancy was low overall (5.8%). Findings indicate that participants with younger ages, lower education, and lower household income, and those born outside of Norway were prone to vaccine hesitancy. Over half of the vaccine hesitant sample cited barriers relating to confidence in the vaccines. Women and participants born in Norway were more likely hesitant due to fear of side effects and there being little experience with the vaccines. Otherwise, complacency barriers such as not feeling that they belonged to a risk group (46.1%), not needing the vaccines (39.1%), and wanting the body to develop natural immunity (29.3%) were frequently selected by participants.
You can read the full paper here: Sociodemographic predictors of and main reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in eastern Oslo: a cross-sectional study (springer.com)
On 6 October at 1600 CET, Alexi Gugushvili, University of Oslo, will present “The COVID-19 Pandemic and War: The Case of Ukraine.”
The COVID-19 pandemic may change the dynamics of existing conflicts or may create conditions for violence through heightened nationalism, xenophobia, or economic hardship. Eastern Europe has been one of the hot spots of the pandemic, and it is currently a location of the most intense interstate armed conflict since the Second World War. In this talk, I will outline possible channels linking pandemics and heightened probability for armed conflict occurrence. I will also describe the COVID-related developments in Russia and Ukraine which preceded president Putin’s decision on the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a link.
In case you missed the start of this semester’s PANSOC webinar series, catch up here:
Kirsty Short, The University of Queensland, “Obesity and viral disease: lessons for pandemic preparedness.”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KitOcdQl7lxjqhP8f-CdE_Sbvm71bfQW/view?usp=sharing
Nele Brusselaers, Antwerp University & Karolinska Institutet & Ghent University, “How science affected Covid-19 policy in Sweden.”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z25XYP35uTOTE604L6E3RUOvNlR480Xf/view?usp=sharing
And watch other past webinars here:
We at PANSOC are so happy and proud to announce that one of our Post-docs, Benjamin Schneider, has been selected for the Young CAS fellowship porogram 2022-2024.
Yo can read more about Bens project here: Introducing the Young CAS Fellows 2023/2024 – CAS
Former Master’s student Christina Stylegar Torjussen and PANSOC leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund have just published a new editorial, Extreme Overcrowding and Extreme Lethality during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, in the American Journal of Public Health.
You can hear more about Christina’s thesis in this podcast (in Norwegian).
Pandemics are a pressing global threat to human life and security, and they have especially serious impacts on Indigenous people throughout the world.
The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) funded project Social Science Meets Biology: Indigenous People and Severe Influenza Outcomes, to be held from August 2022 to June 2023, will bring together interdisciplinary researchers from PANSOC and other international institutions to foster conversations that integrate medical, epidemiological and social perspectives in order to increase understanding of Indigenous experiences when faced with pandemic diseases and better appreciate the diversity of pandemic consequences faced by Indigenous vs. non-Indigenous peoples.
The project will also seek to identify policies to improve prevention and control of pandemics with a particular focus on lessoning their impacts of Indigenous peoples and recommending future research priorities in this area.
As part of this project, a conference will be held in Oslo 15-16 May 2023. Read the call for papers here: Indigenous Peoples & Pandemics conference – CAS
