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Lessons from the Past in a Pandemic

By Sanjoy Bhattacharya | 05 March 2021

Outbreaks and epidemics have affected humanity throughout its existence, often changing the course of history. There are many differences between how we used to and how we currently respond to epidemics, but there are also many points of practice from the past that remain relevant today. Sanjoy Bhattacharya, a historian of medicine and health, is both fascinated and devastated by his experience of living through the worst pandemic in the past 100 years. He reflects on how insights from history can help inform contemporary health policy.

About the Expert

Sanjoy Bhattacharya is Co-Director of the History Department’s Centre for Global Health Histories, Professor in the History of Medicine, a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator and the Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories at the University of York. Sanjoy specialises in the health, medical, political and social history of nineteenth and twentieth century South Asia, as well as the history and contemporary workings of international and global health organisations, and their programmes around the world.

Sanjoy has always worked in inter-disciplinary ways and within inter-sectoral settings, and remains actively involved in health policy research and evaluation work in national and international agencies. He is a co-founder of the World Health Organization’s Global Health Histories project (GHH), which works across the WHO HQ in Geneva, WHO Regional Offices in Copenhagen and Cairo, and multiple WHO Country Offices.