Pandemics: warning from the past, lessons for the future
Lecture, July 2023
By Dr Gayle Pollard, B.Sc. (Hons) Ph.D. Advanced Epidemiologist, Queensland Health

The events of the past three years as we have dealt with COVID-19 from the local to the global level have put pandemics at the forefront of society’s collective consciousness. As the effects of COVID-19 on our community start to wane, the obvious question that many are posing is: ‘Are we ready for the next one?’.

In this lecture we will take a journey through past pandemics from Roman times, through the Black Death, the 1918 ‘Spanish’ flu, several ‘hidden’ pandemics and finally up to the current COVID-19 pandemic. We will cover the varying characteristics of the different pathogens involved and the responses of the affected societies to these pandemics. Finally we will look at what we can learn from past pandemics and how this may affect our preparation for future events.