COVID-19 and other pandemics: History - COVID-19 and other transmissible diseases

The fifteen-minute video below, from Canada's reputable Global News company, provides a timeline overview of the early spread of COVID-19 from country to country.

"Coronavirus outbreak: A timeline of how COVID-19 spread around world" by Global News (Canada). Standard YouTube License applies.

This is an in-depth and neutrally presented news story from Deutsche Welle broadcast company in Germany. The story presents the two top hypotheses about where the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated, and how and why at this time the evidence, while still somewhat inconclusive, most strongly points to zoonotic (animal-to human) transmission. The video goes on to explain animal-to-human disease transmission, and why zoonotic spread of disease is increasing world-wide. It is worth your time, at just under 12 minutes.

What's in a name? part 1

Until recently, it was a common convention to name a transmissible disease after a country or geographic region of alleged origin; after an alleged animal host (swine, bird); after a sign or symptom of the disease (bubonic plague); or after an alleged cause of the disease, sometimes even after we learn that it is not what causes the disease (malaria = "bad air"). Nicknames and naming conventions of diseases may not seem important, but sometimes the names or nicknames we have given diseases inspire bad behavior in us, so it's best to name diseases scientifically. The video below is a short history of disease-naming conventions.

"How To Name A Disease (Like COVID-19)" from Minute Earth. Standard YouTube license applies.

What's in a name? part 2

Adhering to current naming conventions, the 50-second video below describes how COVID-19 got its name.

"How did COVID-19 get its name?" from the CDC. Standard YouTube license applies. Edited by the author of this guide to include narration and captions. Find the original here.

This TED-Ed lecture summarizes the history of the spread of disease and pandemics. This lecture is from 2014, selected in part because it was produced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. You are encouraged to reflect on, and apply the information from this lecture to our current shared experience.

Again this video was selected because it pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic, so that we can view this information through our current understanding and experiences. This video, from Garon, an infectious disease researcher, and Orenstein, a professor of medicine at Emory University, describes how both the joint efforts of nations and the specific characteristics of small pox were able to eradicate the disease through vaccination.