PANSOC just published in top 5 journal in medicine on excess mortality from pandemics

masv on 1. February 2022

As an OsloMet Centre of Research Excellence, we at PANSOC are so proud to have co-authored an original research article with Swiss colleagues in “Annals of Internal Medicine”. This highly prestigious journal has an impact factor of 25.4 and is considered one of top 5 in medicine together with JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and The BMJ. You can read the paper here:

Historically High Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain | Annals of Internal Medicine (acpjournals.org)

Historically High Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain | Annals of Internal Medicine

Next PANSOC Webinar

masv on 31. January 2022

On Thursday, 3 February, at 1600 CET, Chinmay Tumbe, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, will present:

India and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Mortality Estimates and Correlates

India was the worst affected country in the influenza pandemic of 1918, losing more people than the global battle death toll of World War I. This paper uses a new dataset with more complete coverage than previous studies by incorporating the princely states and using the inter-censal estimation method, estimates mortality to be closer to 20 million, higher than previous estimates. It also analyses the regional variation in influenza mortality and attributes it to undernutrition linked to an acute drought preceding the influenza attack and the accompanying price surge, and compares this explanation with others provided in the literature. Finally, the talk also compares India’s 1918 experience with that of 2021, when it faced its largest shock to all-cause mortality in a century.

Read more about Chinmay and his work here.

Verdensledende gjesteforelesere til CAS og Vitenskapsakademiet 8 november 2022

masv on 29. January 2022

Fra 15 august 2022 til 30 Juni 2023 skal senterleder Mamelund lede en forskergruppe på Centre for Advanced Study – CAS. I forbindelse med dette prosjektet har vi vært så heldige å få de verdensledende toppforskerne Jeffrey Tauenberger og John Oxford til å gi gjesteforelesninger om jakten på viruset som forårsaket spanskesyken på Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi 8 november 2022. I vedlagte lenke kan dere 1) lese mer om de to foredragsholderne og deres foredrag og 2) og allerede nå melde dere på om dere vil delta på arrangementet.

The hunt for the virus causing the 1918 influenza pandemic and how it has informed science and preparedness for future pandemics (deltager.no)

Is there a relationship between obesity and COVID19?

masv on 26. January 2022

The answer to this question and more is given in a new Viten & Snakkis podcast by Margarida Pereira in a conversation with Carla Hughes (both at PANSOC).

In the following link Is there a relationship between obesity and COVID-19? – Viten og snakkis (oslomet.no), you can also find four other episodes about pandemics by other PANSOC members including S-E Mamelund, Vibeke Narverud Nyborg, Carla Hughes and Lara Steinmetz.

fat stomach

The PANSOC Webinar series returns Thursday, 27 January at 1600 CET

masv on 23. January 2022

Christina Stylegar Torjussen will present: “Kong Sverre – The Death Ship”

The influenza pandemic in 1918 killed approximately 15,000 people in Norway. Among those were recruits in the Norwegian navy stationed on an exercise and accommodation ship called “Kong Sverre” outside Horten, Norway. Of the 500 recruits on the ship, 158 were infected and 42 died, corresponding to a lethality of 27%. In my master thesis (to be presented in May 2022), I try to figure out the reasons for this high mortality on “Kong Sverre”. In my talk, I present in-progress findings on possible mechanisms for the experiences on the ship. 

Christina Stylegar Torjussen is a student at the University of South-Eastern Norway and an affiliated master student at PANSOC. She is currently working on her master thesis in history.

Contact jessicad@oslomet.no for a link.

Senterleder Mamelund intervjuet sammen med Pestforsker Moseng

masv on 22. January 2022

HISTORIE: Trodde du Svartedauden tok slutt på 1300-tallet? Først da maktstaten kom på 1600-tallet, fikk Europa kontroll på pesten.

– Vi trenger en despot for å bekjempe pandemien, sier Ole Georg Moseng, forfatter av boka «Pesten kommer» – Vårt Land (vl.no)

SENTRALT STED: Ole Georg Moseng er forfatter av boken «Pesten kommer». Han tar oss med til kirkegården like ved Gamle Deichman hovedbibliotek, der ofrene for den siste pesten i 1654 ble stedt til hvile. (Erlend Berge)

Ole Georg Moseng. Forfatter av boka Pesten kommer. Krist kirkegård bak Gamle Deichman hovedbibliotek i Oslo.

2nd Norwegian Historical Demography Meeting (NHDM) hosted by PANSOC 17-18 January

masv on 18. January 2022

PANSOC has just hosted the second NHDM. The first NHDM was held in Trondheim 1-2 December 2019. The planned meetings in 2020 and 2021 were postponed due to COVID-19, but was held this rime on Zoom 17-18 January and planned and organized by PANSOC. Carla Huges, Christina Stylegar, Jessica Dimka and Svenn-Erik Mamelund were PANSOC members presenting, see program below:

PROGRAM:

Monday 17 January

12:00-12:15 Opening by Svenn-Erik Mamelund (OsloMet)

12:15-13:00 Missing Girls

  • Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia (NTNU): “Were there missing girls in Italy? Evidence from a new dataset, 1861-1921?”
  • Eftychia Kalaitzidou (NTNU): “Missing girls in Greece during the 19th and early 20th century”

13:00-13:45 Influenza

  • Christina Torjussen (USN & OsloMet): “King Sverre: The ship of death”
  • Jessica Dimka (OsloMet): “Demographic Impacts of Dynamic Interactions between Seasonal Flu and Chronic Health Conditions”

13:45-14:00 Break

14:15-15:00 Social mobility

  • Kelsey Marleen Mol (NTNU): “Social mobility among women in Hamar around 1900”
  • Kristin Ranestad (Lund U), Paul Sharp (University of Southern Denmark), & Nick Ford (Lund U): “Lessons from Oslo: Examining social mobility after the establishment of Norway’s first university”

Tuesday 18 January

09:00-09:45 Missing Girls

  • Gunnar Thorvaldsen (UiT): “Missing girls in Sandefjord town, Canada and elsewhere”
  • Marko Kovacevic (NTNU): “Malnourished girls in Norway?”

09:45-10:30 Influenza

  • Carla Hughes (OsloMet): “Suicides and the 1918 influenza in Norway”
  • Svenn-Erik Mamelund (OsloMet): “Indigenous peoples & pandemics”

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:00 Causes of death, social class and living conditions

  • Arne Solli, UiB: “Historical index of living conditions: some theoretical and empirical challenges”
  • Petja Lyn Langholz (UiT): “Life-course occupational social class in Northern Norway in the late 19th and early 20th century”
  • Hilde Leikny Sommerseth (UiT): “122 ways of dying: The development of a causes of death nomenclature in Norway”

12:00 Closing by Svenn-Erik Mamelund (OsloMet)

Mamelund deltaker i vaksinebloggens podkastserie

masv on 14. January 2022

Det er nå litt over to år siden covid-19 pandemien startet i form noen få tilfeller av lungebetennelse i Wuhan desember 2019, før SARS-CoV-2 viruset spredde seg til resten av verden. Vi har hatt to år med pandemi og smittevern, og har hatt fokus på smittetall og dødsfall. Det er lett å tenke at vi har vært gjennom noe helt unikt, men pandemier er ikke noe nytt. I denne episoden deltar senterleder Svenn-Erik Mamelund og prater om covid-19 i forhold til tidligere pandemier. Vi er spesielt innom spanskesyken, tar for oss hvordan sosiale forksjeller kan påvirke risiko for sykdom og død og om vi kan si noe om hvordan covid-19 pandemien vil utvikle seg fremover. Medvirkende er også Gunnveig Grødeland og Even Fossum.

Episode 25 – Pandemier og samfunn | Vaksinebloggen