Next PANSOC webinar

masv on 1. April 2022

On April 7, Amanda Wissler will present “The Long-Term Impacts of Pandemic Disease: Health and Survival after the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.”

This presentation explores how the 1918 pandemic caused long-term alterations to population health and demography in the United States. Taking a bioarchaeological approach, I analyze frailty and survival using the skeletal remains of individuals who died before and after the 1918 pandemic. 


Amanda Wissler, PhD, is an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of South Carolina and a Visiting Researcher at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 

Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a link.

Next Webinar March 31

masv on 28. March 2022

At 1600 Oslo time, Lianne Tripp, University of Northern British Columbia, will present:

Overlooking the demographic data: COVID-19 in First Nations in Canada

Previous studies on Indigenous populations and COVID-19 have argued for the need to collect COVID-19 data on Indigenous populations because during times of pandemics they experience more severe health outcomes in relation to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Counterintuitively, studies have found that the COVID-19 rates for some countries (such as in Canada) are higher in non-Indigenous population than Indigenous populations. A re-examination of COVID-19 in Canada reveals misinterpretations and misrepresentations of the data. The failure to recognize that the Canadian COVID-19 data for Indigenous populations was collected for First Nations living on reserves only is one misinterpretation. By end of December 2020, the prevalence rates were higher in First Nations populations living on reserves than non-First Nations populations, and COVID-19 mortality rates in First Nations exceeded the rest of the country by the end of April 2021. There was also considerable regional variation in rates of COVID-19 among First Nations communities across the country, where in western Canada the highest rates were observed.  

Dr Tripp is a medical anthropologist, whose research involves the areas of historical demography and epidemiology (infectious diseases). Emphasis is given to combining an empirical approach with a bio-cultural lens on demographic, primary health reports and qualitative information from historical records. Lianne’s publications have dealt with such matters as: colonial health; disease risk; bio-cultural dimensions of epidemics and pandemics; age and sex/gender differentials in disease experience; and health and religiosity. The diseases of focus are cholera, COVID-19,  measles, 1918 pandemic influenza, tuberculosis, undulant fever, whooping cough, and yellow fever.

Next webinar this Thursday

masv on 15. March 2022

The next PANSOC webinar will be March 17 at 1600 CET. Margarida Pereira will present: “The 2020 Syndemic of Obesity and COVID-19 in an Urbanized World.”

One-hundred years after one of the largest infectious disease pandemics, the Spanish influenza, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. As in 1918-20, the most common public health measures in 2020 to control the spread of this highly contagious disease were essentially non-pharmaceutical. The first COVID-19 outbreaks occurred in urban areas, which confirmed that these areas bring together the perfect conditions for fast dissemination of infectious diseases. Also, at an early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians and scientists observed that individuals with specific comorbidities, and namely with obesity, not only were at higher risk of contracting severe illness but also had increased odds of dying. Hence, urban areas became naturally privileged settings for the uprising of the syndemic of obesity and COVID-19.

Margarida Pereira is a Health Geographer, and her research focuses on the social determinants of health. Currently, Margarida is a postdoctoral fellow at PANSOC and is studying the syndemic relation between obesity and COVID-19 from a social science perspective.

Next webinar on March 10

masv on 7. March 2022

Tamara Giles-Vernick, Institut Pasteur, will present: “Complex local vulnerabilities and the COVID-19 pandemic in France.”

Who is responsible for health during a pandemic? This long-standing question, debated widely among state and local authorities, international institutions, and health experts, has also come to fore in our Vulnerability Assessment among lay publics in France and four other European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. This presentation draws on our 177 qualitative interviews (157 Vulnerability Assessments + 20 supplementary interviews) conducted in France in 2021.

Dr. Tamara Giles-Vernick is Director of Research and Unit head of the Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence Unit – the Institut Pasteur’s first social sciences research unit in its 130-year history. Dr. Giles-Vernick currently coordinates SoNAR-Global, a European Commission-funded global social sciences research network for preparedness and response to infectious threats. A specialist in the medical anthropology and history of central and west Africa, her current research focuses on COVID-19 and its consequences, as well as the emergence of zoonotic diseases and epidemics. In addition, she has published on viral hepatitis, Ebola, Buruli ulcer, the historical emergence of HIV in Africa, global health in Africa, the history of influenza pandemics, and environmental history.

Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a Zoom link.

Webinar returns next week at special time

masv on 18. February 2022

On 24 February at a special time (1400 CET), David Roth of the Australian National University will present in the PANSOC webinar series (email jessicad@oslomet.no if you need a link).

The effects of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic on mental patients in New South Wales – Work-In-Progress

Before the current pandemic, there has been relatively little research on the effects of the 1918-1919 pandemic on the mentally ill, even though its sequelae of persistent mental and physical afflictions among the general population have been well-established in the literature. During 1919, 180 patients in New South Wales (NSW) asylums died from influenza, a crude mortality rate of 8.4 per cent. An unknown number of patients recovered. The case notes for a major Sydney asylum, Callan Park, indicate that surviving patients may have suffered an exacerbation of their psychiatric condition, a form of ‘long flu’. The notes also show that influenza was the underlying cause of mental illness at admission in some cases. Although recording practices at Callan Park and other NSW asylums were patchy, the surviving evidence nevertheless suggests that there were significant gender differences for mortality and infection rates. The age distribution of influenza mortality and infection also appears to be somewhat different than for the general population of NSW. It did not follow the famous ‘W-shaped curve’. In this presentation, I discuss my preliminary results, and explain my methodology and its limitations. I also examine the prevention measures which were undertaken and discuss their efficacy in crowded asylum environments. The special vulnerability of mental patients in crowded asylums underlines the importance of precautionary preparations for persons under institutional care during epidemics, especially the aged, or persons with mental or physical disability. We have still not learnt this lesson with COVID.

Dr David T. Roth is a Campus Visitor at the School of History at the Australian National University. He completed a PhD thesis in July 2020 on the topic ‘Life, Death and Deliverance at Callan Park Hospital for the Insane 1877 to 1923’. He has particular interests in the mortality of the mentally ill, aged care and the history of medications at this period. His publications include ‘Chemical Restraints at Callan Park Hospital for the Insane before 1900’ in Health and History. David has contributed to the Civil Liberties Association’s submission to the Royal Commission on Aged Care. He is currently researching the effects of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic on mental patients in NSW and the efficacy of bacterial vaccines at this period.