COVID-19 Historical Perspectives

ANZSHM members responded to the COVID-19 crisis as it unfolded, placing the pandemic in historical context for a range of audiences.

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Influenza and Covid 19

Dr KirstyShort, Senior Lecturer, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Qld, lecture to ANZSHM NSW Branch 10 June 2020.

Lest We Forget

Dr Anthea Hyslopand Dr Peter Hobbins featured in ABC TV's Australian Story episode on the Spanish Flu, 1 June 2020.

Historical Parallels between Australia's COVID-19 Response and Previous Health Crises

Associate Professor Paul Sendziuk spoke on ABC Radio National’s ‘Big Ideas’ program, discussing historical parallels between Australia’s COVID-19 response (and federal and state responsibilities) and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The program was co-sponsored by the National Archives of Australia.

How Border Closures Failed in 1919

Dr Peter Hobbins was interviewed by the ABC Signal Team 8 July 2020, referencing the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. One hundred years ago, when Australia was gripped by Spanish Flu, the nation failed to contain the pandemic. The weak spot was the border between Victoria and New South Wales. Crossing the border, the disease spread throughout the country, infecting hundreds of thousands and killing at least 15,000 people. The parallels to 2020 are striking. How did Australia’s containment measures of 2020 compare with 1919?'

‘Kissing can be dangerous’: How Old Advice for Tuberculosis Seems Strangely Familiar Today

Dr Criena Fitzgerald commentary in The Conversation, 26 June 2020.

Sydney University Historians Respond to the Pandemic

This article links to contributions by ANZSHM members, including Prof. Warwick Anderson. Warwick wrote on: how to have philosophy in a pandemic, why the iconic Australian beach was re-imagined as a special space of contamination, and the controversies over mask wearing for ‘face work’ in a time of COVID-19, particularly in the United States of America. Warwick spoke with Jim Yong Kim, a physician and former president of the World Bank Group, and with Christopher Lydon on American National Public Radio’s Open Source about national responses to COVID-19.

Dr Peter Hobbins was sought after for commentary on the pandemic and comparisons to previous public health crises. Below are a selection of articles and programs in which Peter’s work appeared.

  1. ‘Parallels drawn between 1919 Spanish Flu and coronavirus’, interview with Annelise Nielsen, Sky News, 13 May 2020 https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6156222896001

  2. ‘We forgot the Spanish flu. Will we remember the coronavirus?’, interview with Kishor Napier-Raman, Crikey, 5 June 2020 https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/06/05/we-forgot-the-spanish-flu-will-we-remember-the-coronavirus/

  3. ‘Been there before’, quoted by Jamie Warnock, Fremantle Herald Interactive, 29 May 2020 https://heraldonlinejournal.com/2020/05/29/been-there-before/

  4. ‘History in the making: how libraries are capturing the pandemic for posterity’, interview with Hollie Pich, Guardian Australia, 13 May 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/may/13/history-in-the-making-how-libraries-are-capturing-the-pandemic-for-posterity

  5. ‘NSW in lockdown: we’ve seen it all before’, interview with Soofia Tariq, Central News, 8 May 2020 https://centralnews.com.au/2020/05/08/sydney-in-lockdown-weve-seen-it-all-before/

  6. ‘Politicians, take note this Anzac Day: coronavirus is a pandemic. It is not a war’, quoted by Paul Daley, Guardian Australia, 25 April 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/25/politicians-take-note-this-anzac-day-coronavirus-is-a-pandemic-it-is-not-a-war

  7. ‘Fact check: is it illegal under the constitution for a state to close its borders to other Australians?’, interview with Lisa Waller, RMIT ABC Fact Check, 23 April 2020 https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2020/april/fact-check-state-border-closures

  8. ‘Does this town hold the clue to surviving a pandemic?’, interview with Marc Stapelberg, Northern Star, 17 April 2020 https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-northern-star/20200417/282312502202437

  9. ‘Coronavirus border closures reminiscent of Spanish flu shutdown in 1919’, interview with Erin Somerville, ABC Goulburn Murray, 25 March 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-24/coronavirus-border-closures-reminiscent-of-spanish-flushutdown/12085478

  10. ‘“If it kills us, we do something about it”: Sydney’s grim history of pandemics’, interview with Andrew Taylor, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 March 2020 https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/if-it-kills-us-we-do-something-about-it-sydney-s-grim-history-of-pandemics-20200319-p54bqk.html

  11. ‘Preparing to face life in lockdown’, interview with Jacqueline May, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2020 https://www.smh.com.au/national/preparing-to-face-life-in-lockdown-20200319-p54bzu.html

  12. ‘Australia is looking to lessons from the Spanish flu’, interview with Andrew Clark, Australian Financial Review, 14 March 2020 https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/australia-is-looking-to-lessons-from-the-spanish-flu-20200312-p549ed

  13. ‘Why masks are common in Hong Kong, but not Australia during COVID-19’, interview with Matilda Marozzi, ABC Live Blog, 18 July 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-19/why-some-countries-are-more-willing-to-wear-masks/12420838

  14. ‘Protecting WA in 1919 and 2020’, interview with Geoff Hutchison, Drive, ABC Perth, 15 July 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/radio/perth/programs/drive/spanish-flu-comparison/12459680

  15. ‘How border closures failed in 1919’, interview with Stephen Smiley, The Signal, ABC, 8 July 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/the-signal/how-border-closures-failed-in-1919/12432110

  16. ‘Saving pandemic ephemera for history’, interview with Josh Szeps, ABC Sydney, 14 May 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/programs/afternoons/afternoons/12226546

  17. ‘Collecting the COVID-19 archive’, interview with Gabi Payne, City Journal News, 14 May 2020 https://www.spreaker.com/user/9800368/city-journal-news-update-may-14-2020

  18. ‘Two interviews on transport lessons from Coronavirus’, interview with David Brown, Overdrive Podcast, 28 March 2020 https://www.anyauto.com.au/overdrive-podcast-radio-program-week-13-2020/

  19. ‘Racism and the history of quarantine in Australia’, interview with Reema Rattan, Communication Mixdown, 3CR, 10 February 2020 https://www.3cr.org.au/communicationmixdown/episode-202002101800/racism-and-history-quarantine-australia

  20. ‘Spread of the coronavirus’, interview with Philip Clark, Nightlife, ABC, 5 February 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/coronavirus/11934518

  21. ‘Quarantine harks back to colonial times’, interview with Sinead Mangan, Australia Wide, ABC, 31 January 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/australia-wide/quarantine/11919348

  22. ‘The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918’, interview with Michael McLaren, Wake Up Australia, 2GB, 30 January 2020 https://www.2gb.com/podcast/the-spanish-flu-pandemic-of-1918/

  23. ‘Six months later, Australia tames the virus’, interview with Andrew Clark, Australian Financial Review, 26 September 2020 https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/six-months-later-australia-tames-the-virus-20200925-p55z7r

  24. ‘A short history of vaccination campaigns in Australia and what we might expect with COVID-19’, quoted in NZ City, 22 September 2020 https://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=319169

  25. ‘How the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic ended’, interview with Michael McLaren, Wake Up Australia, 2GB, 10 September 2020 https://www.2gb.com/podcast/how-the-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-ended/

  26. ‘Aftershocks’, interview with Sabrina Organo, The Gatherings Order, State Library of New South Wales, 4 September 2020 https://audio.sl.nsw.gov.au/podcast/gatherings-order/episode-5-aftershocks

  27. ‘The second wave’, interview with Sabrina Organo, The Gatherings Order, State Library of New South Wales, 4 September 2020 https://audio.sl.nsw.gov.au/podcast/gatherings-order/episode-4-second-wave

  28. ‘Holding the line’, interview with Sabrina Organo, The Gatherings Order, State Library of New South Wales, 4 September 2020 https://audio.sl.nsw.gov.au/podcast/gatherings-order/episode-3-holding-line

  29. ‘Preparing for the worst’, interview with Sabrina Organo, The Gatherings Order, State Library of New South Wales, 4 September 2020 https://audio.sl.nsw.gov.au/podcast/gatherings-order/episode-2-preparing-worst

  30. ‘War, peace and a pandemic’, interview with Sabrina Organo, The Gatherings Order, State Library of New South Wales, 4 September 2020 https://audio.sl.nsw.gov.au/podcast/gatherings-order/episode-1-war-peace-and-pandemic

  31. ‘How do pandemics usually end? And how will this one finish?’, interview with Tegan Taylor, ABC Health, 8 September 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-09-08/covid-coronavirus-how-do-pandemics-end-and-how-will-this-one-end/12596954

  32. ‘A century of anti-maskers: How Australians refused to wear face coverings when the Spanish Flu hit in 1919 because it gave them a “piglike snout” – but it didn't end well for them’, interview with Louise Starkey, Daily Mail Australia, 23 August 2020 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8622407/COVID-19-Spanish-Flu-similarities-mask-pushback-started-second-wave-1919.html

  33. ‘Victoria used to run the country. Not any more’, interview with Andrew Clark, Australian Financial Review, 7 August 2020 https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/victoria-used-to-run-the-country-not-any-more-20200806-p55jda

  34. ‘Sydney during the Spanish flu: Tour goes inside the city's disease-ridden past’, interview with Anthony Dennis, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August 2020 https://www.traveller.com.au/sydney-during-the-spanish-flu-tour-goes-inside-the-citys-diseaseridden-past-h1ptay

  35. ‘Why masks are common in Hong Kong, but not Australia during COVID-19’, interview with Matilda Marozzi, ABC Live Blog, 18 July 2020 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-19/why-some-countries-are-more-willing-to-wear-masks/12420838

  36. ‘Quarantine camps, face masks and makeshift hospitals’, quoted by Louise Starkey, Daily Mail Australia, 7 July 2020 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8496529/Spanish-Flu-vs-COVID-19-Photographs-different-life-NSW-closed-border.html

Other publications by ANZSHM members about COVID-19

Warwick Anderson, 'The model crisis, or how to have critical promiscuity on the time of Covid-19', Social Studies of Science, vol.51, no.2, 2021 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0306312721996053

Pamela Maddock and Warwick Anderson, 'Standing Up Straighter Against Covid-19?', Arena Quarterly, no.4, 2020; pp. 5-8 https://arena.org.au/standing-up-straighter-against-covid-19/

Warwick Anderson, 'The Philippine Covidscape: Colonial Public Health Redux?', Philippine Studies, vol.68, nos.3-4, 2020, pp.325-37

Warwick Anderson 'Think Like a Virus', Public Books, 7 Jan 2021 https://www.publicbooks.org/think-like-a-virus/ Reprinted in Thomas J. Sugrue and Caitlin Zaloom (eds), The 2020 Reader, New York: Columbia University Press, 2021

Warwick Anderson, 'The Way We Live Now?', Isis, vol.111, no.4, 2020, pp.834-37