It Wasn't Supposed to Be a Coronavirus: The Quest for an Influenza A(h5n1)-Derived Vaccine and the Limits of Pandemic Preparedness (2020)
Dolan, Brian P. (Author)
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 62
Issue: 2
Pages: 331-343
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised questions about what efforts were made across the world to prepare governments and healthcare systems for such an event. This spotlight article looks at developments made in “pre-pandemic preparedness planning” following a number of outbreaks of influenza type A virus in 1997. At that time, a specific avian influenza subtype, referred to as A(H5N1), wreaked havoc among fowl but also infected humans through direct transmission. The potential for slight genetic mutations that could make A(H5N1) more infectious, allowing human-to-human transmission, presented the threat of a deadly influenza pandemic. As a result, the U.S. government (and others coordinating through the World Health Organization) launched a pandemic preparation plan, including strategies to develop vaccines against A(H5N1) and its genetic lineages each year. This spotlight article discusses the events that led to the specific concern about A(H5N1) among public health officials, as well as early efforts to derive and stockpile an appropriate vaccine to protect against a possible pandemic. This perspective presents the challenges the world has faced, in recent history, in striving to keep one step ahead of pandemic threats.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
M. Kemal Temel;
(2020)
The 1918 “Spanish Flu” Pandemic in the Ottoman Capital, Istanbul
(/isis/citation/CBB539750154/)
Book
Guy Beiner;
(2021)
Pandemic Re-awakenings: The Forgotten and Unforgotten 'Spanish' Flu of 1918-1919
(/isis/citation/CBB359451253/)
Book
Carlo Caduff;
(2015)
The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of Danger
(/isis/citation/CBB736184954/)
Article
Stefano Santasilia;
(2020)
Pandemia e stili di vita: pazienza
(/isis/citation/CBB845461986/)
Article
Silvia Caianiello;
(2020)
Accelerazione. Riflessioni sulle temporalità della pandemia
(/isis/citation/CBB072366901/)
Article
Stefania Achella;
(2020)
Ragioni della scienza e ragioni politiche. Alcune considerazioni filosofiche
(/isis/citation/CBB319793049/)
Article
Davide Orsini;
James A. Ostenson;
Francesco Brigo;
Mariano Martini;
(2023)
Pandemics and Mental Disorders: From the Thought of the 19th Century Psychiatrist Andrea Verga to long-term effects of COVID-19
(/isis/citation/CBB934514442/)
Book
Fernando Rosa;
Alessandra Parodi;
(2024)
Essere in una pandemia. Filosofia, medicina e Covid-19
(/isis/citation/CBB335674855/)
Article
Michael P. Kelly;
Federica Russo;
(2021)
The epistemic values at the basis of epidemiology and public health
(/isis/citation/CBB856188518/)
Book
Jacques Pépin;
(2021)
The Origins of AIDS
(/isis/citation/CBB084551418/)
Article
Monica H. Green;
(2020)
Emerging Diseases, Re-Emerging Histories
(/isis/citation/CBB050271628/)
Article
Frédéric Keck;
(2020)
Asian Tigers and the Chinese Dragon: Competition and Collaboration Between Sentinels of Pandemics from Sars to COVID-19
(/isis/citation/CBB928442723/)
Article
Jahn, Stefanie;
(2014)
Die Grippe-Pandemie nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg und die Homöopathie im internationalen Vergleich
(/isis/citation/CBB001421921/)
Thesis
Bresalier, M C;
(cited 2010)
Transforming Flu: Medical Science and the Making of a Virus Disease in London, 1890--1939
(/isis/citation/CBB001567257/)
Article
David S. Jones;
(2020)
COVID-19, History, and Humility
(/isis/citation/CBB009243530/)
Article
Wesley Shrum;
John Aggrey;
Andre Campos;
Janaina Pamplona da Costa;
Jan Joseph;
Pablo Kreimer;
Rhiannon Kroeger;
Leandro Rodriguez Medina;
Paige Miller;
Antony Palackal;
Ana Pandal de la Peza;
Abou Traore;
(October 2020)
Who’s afraid of Ebola? Epidemic fires and locative fears in the Information Age
(/isis/citation/CBB307916719/)
Article
Rosamaria Alibrandi;
(2018)
When Early Modern Europe Caught the Flu. A Scientific Account of Pandemic Influenza in Sixteenth Century Sicily
(/isis/citation/CBB688058877/)
Article
Esyllt W. Jones;
(2022)
Open Secrets: Silence, Suppression, and Memory in the History of Canada’s 1918–20 Influenza Pandemic
(/isis/citation/CBB652345948/)
Book
Honigsbaum, Mark;
(2014)
A History of the Great Influenza Pandemics: Death, Panic and Hysteria, 1830--1920
(/isis/citation/CBB001550988/)
Article
Nükhet Varlık;
(2020)
Rethinking the History of Plague in the Time of Covid-19
(/isis/citation/CBB776966901/)
Be the first to comment!