COVID-19

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/21/2020
  

  The Forgotten Third Amendment Could Give Pandemic-Struck America a Way Forward

  by Alexander Zhang

  Could the Third Amendment's ban on quartering of troops in private homes be expanded to establish a right to protection against pandemics? The history of troop quartering shows objections to it were closely connected with fear of disease.

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  10/20/2020
  

  ‘It’s Negligence’: U. of Michigan Students Ordered to ‘Stay in Place’ After Covid-19 Cases Surge

  Washtenaw County health officials are confronting the administration of the University of Michigan over their planning process for reopening campus as local cases associated with the university surge. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/19/2020
  

  What Fans of "Herd Immunity" Don't Tell You

  by John M. Barry

  Prolonged isolation measures to fight COVID-19 do cause harm--social, emotional, and economic. But advocates of "herd immunity" are not offering a practical or safe plan to protect the vulnerable if the virus spreads on a mass scale. 

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• SOURCE: Wisconsin Public Radio
  10/17/2020
  

  Where Are We On The Roller Coaster Of History?

  Historian Jeremi Suri suggests that the Trump administration has roused social movements that can revive American democracy. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/15/2020
  

  Trump, Biden and Masculinity in the Age of Coronavirus

  Trump and Biden both seek to embody a masculine ideal on the campaign trail, but the differences in each candidate's vision of what manliness is show that the idea is changing. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/15/2020
  

  In Fights Over Face Masks, Echoes of the American Seatbelt Wars

  The fight over seatbelt laws in the United States was fraught with trying to strike a balance between individual and public interests. Those concerns have also been reflected in similar matters of health and safety, including vaccinations, helmet laws — and masks.

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• 10/11/2020
  

  Fear of the "Pussification" of America: A Short Cultural History

  by Gregory A. Daddis

  The bizarre idea that COVID-19 can be defeated through manliness is one of the stranger cultural themes of our time, but it connects to a long history of anxiety about masculinity in a changing America that encourages violent and even self-destructive actions in the name of proving virility.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  10/14/2020
  

  How Do Pandemics End? History Suggests Diseases Fade but are Never Truly Gone

  by Nükhet Varlik

  "Whether bacterial, viral or parasitic, virtually every disease pathogen that has affected people over the last several thousand years is still with us, because it is nearly impossible to fully eradicate them."

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• 10/15/2020
  

  An Open Letter to Dr. Anthony Fauci

  by Martin Halpern

  A history professor who also has a background in public health research urges Dr. Anthony Fauci to resign so that he can freely speak out about the Trump administration's response to the COVID pandemic. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/12/2020
  

  Coronavirus Shutdowns and Charges of White Supremacy: American Art Museums are in Crisis

  The year of the COVID pandemic is not an opportune time for museums to weather controversies over the content of exhibits, but many face criticism from across the spectrum about racial inclusivity and provocative works. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  10/12/2020
  

  Colleges Pledged to Follow the Science. But Divides in Reopening Plans Reflected State Politics

  Although the findings have not been peer reviewed, a working paper on college administrators' decisions to reopen campuses suggests that Republican state leadership was correlated with decisions to return students to campus this fall. 

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• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  10/6/2020
  

  2020 is One of the Top 5 Contenders for Craziest Year in American History

  If anyone needed confirmation, a panel of historians agrees that this year is... special. No one even has the bandwidth to discuss Murder Hornets anymore.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  10/8/2020
  

  Politics, not Public Good, Will Guide what We Know about Trump’s Health

  by William I. Hitchcock

  "Should a president choose to hide crucial health details from the public, as Trump and his doctors have done, citizens have little recourse. All they can do is draw their own conclusions about the trustworthiness of the president."

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/8/2020
  

  The New England Journal of Medicine Avoided Politics for 208 Years. Now it’s Urging Voters to Oust Trump

  The administration's incompetent response to the COVID-19 pandemic spurred the otherwise non-political medical journal to endorse a vote against Donald Trump.

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• SOURCE: NPR
  10/5/2020
  

  Trump's COVID-19 Diagnosis Recalls History Of Secrecy On Presidential Health

  Barbara Perry, Director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, says that secrecy and obfuscation about his health "is one precedent this president is following."

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  10/4/2020
  

  Coronavirus Can Afflict the Powerful. Yet Food Workers Remain the Most Vulnerable.

  by Angela Stuesse

  The rollback of workplace protections under a generation of conservative state and federal administrations has made low-wage service workers acutely vulnerable to COVID. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  10/3/2020
  

  Notre Dame’s President Went Unmasked at White House, Then Tested Positive. Now He’s Under Fire

  Student Ashton Weber recently helped create a petition, signed by more than 200 undergraduates, calling for Jenkins to resign because of his repeated failures to follow the public-safety precautions expected of students. 

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• 10/4/2020
  

  "Follow the Science," but Explain and Apologize

  by Susan M. Reverby

  Governments need to establish trust so that their public health announcements are credible and persuasive, but have undermined that trust by conducting ethically questionable studies. A model of apology is part of the solution. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/2/2020
  

  Trump, First Lady Test Positive for Coronavirus

  Trump, 74, was diagnosed hours after it became publicly known that Hope Hicks, a top Trump aide who traveled with him on Air Force One and Marine One this week, tested positive Thursday morning.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/2/2020
  

  Years of the White House obscuring health information add instability at a tricky moment

  If Hope Hicks's test hadn’t leaked, would we even know about Trump?