COVID-19 and other pandemics

From the Black Death of the fourteenth century to more recent Ebola and SARS and the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis, pandemics and disease outbreaks have devastated societies, wiped out significant portions of populations, and necessitated political, social, and scientific changes to address these public health catastrophes. When the COVID-19 virus effectively brought the world to its knees in 2020, it became clear that whatever scientists and policymakers had learned from historical pandemics wasn't enough. Journalists, politicians, medical professionals, and other experts from a range of fields weigh in on how pandemics happen and evaluate the potential means of controlling them.