Reporting Coronavirus: Dr Mark Honigsbaum on pandemics, plague and panic

In today’s episode, we talk to medical historian Mark Honigsbaum about pandemics through the ages, from the medieval Black Death to the 20th century’s Spanish flu; from Ebola to SARS. How do we report on such viruses –  and what is our fascination with Patient Zero,  and ‘superspreaders’? Join us as we talk to Mark about why we ended up panicking over swine flu, but largely forgot the far more deadly outbreak of influenza in 1918, and what role the media has played in forming our views on this.

Dr Mark Honigsbaum is a lecturer at City, University of London and author of The Pandemic Century One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris and Living with Enza The Forgotten Story of Britain and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918

Presented by: Dr. Glenda Cooper and Dr. Lindsey Blumell

Produced by: Atina Dimitrova

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