Clioepidemiology and COVID-19
Why we should listen to the experts on the SARS 2003 outbreak and think about vaccine manufacturing scale-up now — rather than later.
In 2003, an outbreak of Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) started claiming lives around the world. Health care workers, in countries everywhere from Singapore to Germany, appeared to be especially at risk. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself. In the last two months, more than 9,000 healthcare workers in the United States alone have been infected with the virus causing Covid-19. Of these workers 55% are under the age of 44. My latest story for WIRED asks why this is happening and how we can do better at “clioepidemiology.” Named after Clio, the muse of history, it describes the practice of studying information from past epidemics for advice about the present. Read more here: The History of Pandemics Teaches Us Only That We Can’t Be Taught
A second piece I wrote last week looks the hope for creating a vaccine against Covid-19 and the fear that even if we succeed at this we won’t be able to make enough to supply the world. My conversations with drug companies, policy experts and nonprofits led me to understand the complexities of this challenge, and the possible solutions that might exist. Here is the story for Nature magazine that resulted from my reporting: If a coronavirus vaccine arrives, can the world make enough?