medical history

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  9/12/2021
  

  The Way it Was

  "That year in the 1960s, several thousand American women were treated in emergency rooms for botched abortions, and there were at least 200 known deaths.Comparing my story with others from the pre-Roe era, what impresses me is how close I veered to mortal danger."

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  9/7/2021
  

  Carl Zimmer's Planet of Viruses and the Politics of Popular Science Writing

  by Danielle Carr

  Carl Zimmer's work as a science popularizer has been hailed as a key to bringing Americans on board with public health measures in the pandemic. But does his approach to writing about the science of viruses obscure the context of politics in which science unfolds? 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/31/2021
  

  It's the Moment the Antivax Movement Has Been Waiting For

  by Tara Haelle

  The antivax movement has appropriated common-sense ideas like parental control and bodily autonomy to sow widespread fear and hostility toward the COVID-19 vaccinations.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  9/1/2021
  

  How "Snake Oil" Got a Bad Name

  by Caitjan Gainty

  19th century snake oil was not necessarily less effective than the wares of orthodox medical professionals, but was unable to withstand changes in the medical marketplace driven by professional organizations. 

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• SOURCE: Points: Blog of the Alcohol & Drugs History Society and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy
  8/31/2021
  

  The Lincoln Family and Pennyroyal: Re-Evaluating Medicines in the Archive and Beyond

  by Emma Verstraete

  An examination of Abraham Lincoln's family purchases of medicinal herbs highlights the need to use the lens of oral history and folk knowledge to interpret sources. 

• 
• SOURCE: Governing
  8/5/2021
  

  The Long History of Vaccine Mandates

  by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

  President Biden's recent call for mandatory vaccination for federal workers follows the precedent set by George Washington's order to inoculate the Continental Army for smallpox.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  7/29/2021
  

  Simone Biles has Courageously Exposed the Blurred Line between Medicine and Abuse

  by Wendy Kline

  Simone Biles has worked to ensure that Dr. Larry Nasser's abuse of gymnasts under his care is not forgotten. This abuse was enabled by the authoritarian culture of both medicine and sports which keep women from exercising bodily autonomy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  7/8/2021
  

  Black Health Care, Black Art: A Texas Perspective

  by Celeste Henery

  Oral histories from Black health care practitioners shed important light on how they and the communities they served understood health and treatment, and speak to the ongoing problems Black Americans report in accessing good and compassionate care. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  6/29/2021
  

  AIDS Disappeared from Public View Without Ending. Will Covid-19 do the Same?

  by Dan Royles

  AIDS activism shifted from framing the epidemic as a political crisis to a medical problem, allowing the ongoing vulnerability of the poor to fade from view as pharmaceutical advances have helped control the spread and impact of HIV among the affluent. 

• 
• SOURCE: Science
  5/17/2021
  

  Human Tissue Preserved since World War I Yields New Clues about 1918 Pandemic

  "The partial genomes hold some tantalizing clues that the infamous flu strain may have adapted to humans between the pandemic’s first and second waves."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/30/2021
  

  Psychiatry Confronts Its Racist Past, and Tries to Make Amends

  "Critics operating both inside and outside the A.P.A. say that it still must overcome high hurdles to truly address its issues around racial equity — including its diagnostic biases, the enduring lack of Black psychiatrists and a payment structure that tends to exclude people who can’t afford to pay out of pocket for services."

• 
• SOURCE: Nursing Clio
  4/29/2021
  

  Mary Seacole and the Politics of Writing Black History in 1980s Britain

  by Margo Williams

  The revival of British interest in the life of Jamaican-Scottish nurse Mary Seacole reflected the rise of a movement by Black British activists to see Black history as a story of struggle, rather than of a color-blind narrative of Britishness. 

• 
• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  4/27/2021
  

  Pandemic Lessons From the Era of ‘Les Miserables’

  Medical historian Ed Cohen describes the 1832 cholera outbreak as "imperial blowback," as the disease arrived in Europe from their colonies. Nearly 2% of the city's population died, but the aftermath saw an increase in migration from the countryside and a flourishing of public health-oriented planning. 

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  4/14/2021
  

  How Amsterdam Recovered From a Deadly Outbreak — in 1665

  Attracting migrants was the key to Amsterdam's economic and social recovery, according to a study of historical data by two Dutch economists. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  4/22/2021
  

  The Great Forgetting: Why We Forget Epidemics and Why This One Must Be Remembered

  by Nina Burleigh

  "For most Americans, the history of the 1918 flu shares space in that ever-larger tomb of oblivion with the history of other diseases of our great-grandparents’ time that vaccines have now eradicated."

• 
• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  4/16/2021
  

  Vaccine Hesitancy is a 21st-Century Phenomenon

  by Gareth Millward

  The progress of public health practice means that today's policymakers seek to make vaccination widespread enough to eradicate, rather than suppress, disease. Looking at success as a continuum could lead to more constructive approaches to work toward eradication. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/21/2021
  

  Revisiting a 19th Century Medical Idea Could Help Address COVID-19

  by Melanie A. Kiechle

  Although the miasma theory of disease has been replaced by the germ theory, it's nevertheless the case that it drew attention to the connection between air quality and health, and the practical measures inspired by it can be useful in the COVID pandemic. 

• 
• SOURCE: NIH Director's Blog
  4/15/2021
  

  Fauci Donates Model to Smithsonian’s COVID-19 Collection

  Dr. Anthony Fauci's model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a prop in numerous informational sessions since the beginning of the pandemic. Now, the plastic germ will reside in the Smithsonian's collections. 

• 
• SOURCE: WEMU
  4/12/2021
  

  U-M Medical Historian Says It Appears History Is Repeating Itself In Our Current Pandemic

  Medical Historian Alex Navarro warns that resistance to vaccines and public health measures are likely to prolong the COVID pandemic the way they did the 1919 influenza. 

• 
• SOURCE: History.com
  4/9/2021
  

  The First ‘Vaccine Passports’ Were Scars from Smallpox Vaccinations

  Faced with unreliable and falsifiable documentation, public health authorities at the turn of the 20th century demanded physical proof of vaccination: the scarring left by the early technique, says smallpox historian Michael Willrich.