Disease Events and Society

In this activity, learners read an interview and watch a documentary about large-scale disease events and respond to discussion or writing prompts. 

Resources

Provide learners with the following resources:

How Pandemics Change History an interview with Frank M. Snowden author of the book “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present”.

Healthy Davis Together Documentary

Discussion or Writing Prompts

Following the review of these resources, the following prompts may be used to support written or discussion-based analyses:

Consider this quote from the NY Times article: “The main part of preparedness to face these events is that we need as human beings to realize that we’re all in this together, that what affects one person anywhere affects everyone everywhere, that we are therefore inevitably part of a species, and we need to think in that way rather than about divisions of race and ethnicity, economic status, and all the rest of it.” 

1. Share your thoughts on how the Healthy Davis Together response to the COVID-19 pandemic did or did not reflect this strategy recommended by Snowdon in the quote above.
2. Share your thoughts on how a response such as Healthy Davis Together could be scaled regionally, nationally, and globally. Are there components that are well-suited for scalability, are there those that are not?
3. Share your thoughts on how the lessons learned and knowledge gained in response to the COVID-19 pandemic could be applied to the purpose of preparing for future pandemic events in a manner that reflects the sentiments of the quote above. 

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