Indigenous people & Pandemics
The influenza pandemics of 1918 and 2009, as well as the ongoing COVID-19, show that Indigenous people have extremely high risk of severe disease outcomes, but the reasons for this vulnerability are unclear. This week, the head of PANSOC, Svenn-Erik Mamelund, will hold a talk on Indigenous people & Pandemics for the “Indigenous Peoples and Development Branch, Division for Inclusive Social Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, at the United Nations in New York”
![The influenza pandemic hit the native communities in Alaska hard. These children in an orphanage in Nushagak, Alaska, lost their parents. Summer of 1919. Source: Alaska Historical Library](https://cas.oslo.no/getfile.php/1347354-1600087890/Forskergrupper/orphanage.jpg%20%28content%29.jpg)
The influenza pandemic hit the native communities in Alaska hard. These children in an orphanage in Nushagak, Alaska, lost their parents. Summer of 1919. Source: Alaska Historical Library
In August 2022 to June 2023, Mamelund will also lead a CAS-project on this topic. You can read more here:
Social science meets biology: indigenous people and severe influenza outcomes – CAS
Why do Indigenous people have high risk of severe influenza? – CAS,
Announcing the CAS projects 2022/23: from influenza to peace-and-conflict, and algebra – CAS