Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

After learning about the notable past epidemics discussed in the readings, compare the examples to describe how these epidemics impacted societies. Give reasons for the extent of each epidemic's impact.

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Vocabulary epidemic: a widespread, sudden, and rapid outbreak of a contagious disease where that disease is normally not present or occurs only occasionally. pandemic: an epidemic that has spread across several countries, affecting a large number of people. xenophobia: fear and dislike of people from other countries. Black Death: a 14th-century plague that killed up to a third of the European population and changed economic and demographic conditions. smallpox: first introduced to the Americas by European colonizers, smallpox is an extremely contagious virus that either kills those who are infected or leaves them horribly scarred. Ebola: a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and can lead to severe bleeding, organ failure, and death. It has occurred sporadically in various parts of Africa since 1976. COVID-19: a respiratory virus discovered in China in 2019. The highly contagious virus spread around the world, quickly turning into a pandemic that had not only health, but social and economic impacts as well.

Background Information

Epidemics and pandemics have had major impacts on populations throughout history. Some of the best known include the Black Death—an outbreak of bubonic plague that struck Europe in the 14th century—and the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 (sometimes called the "Spanish flu") that is believed to have caused as many as 75 million deaths worldwide during and after World War I. Epidemics are usually defined by comparing death rates during disease outbreaks to normal, long-term death rates.

Medical or health geographers study the spread of disease, social response to disease, and the demographic, social, and economic effects of diseases on populations. In looking at the effects of an epidemic, they examine: Globalization and ease of disease transmission International aid cooperation and response The politics and ethics of closing borders to avoid the spread of disease

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Context and Things to Consider Think about how the Black Death spread. Consider the immediate impacts of the Black Death on Europe's population numbers. Also look at the different ways people reacted to the spread of the disease. Consider the long-term impacts of the Black Death on religion, trade, science, and geographic boundaries.

Geography and the Black Death

Exactly where the medieval disease that we call the "Black Death" started, no one knows for sure. However, historical accounts suggest that the disease likely began in ancient civilizations of central-eastern Asia, and spread westward during the 1340s, eventually entering Europe in late 1346. Within five years, by the time the first wave of the disease had passed through Western Europe, it is estimated that as much as 60% of Europe's population had died.

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

After the development of the Silk Road trading route, Italian merchants (particularly those from Genoa) and other traders established a fortress and market area on the Crimean Peninsula bordering the Black Sea. The settlement was called Caffa. Caffa, and other trading settlements along the Black Sea, were located at the intersection of eastern and western civilizations. For many years, both civilizations participated in trading and merchant activities. However, in 1346, the Golden Horde of the Mongol Empire, under the leadership of Janibeg, attacked the fortress at Caffa again after several previous attempts to take control of the trading outpost. Around the same time, Janibeg's troops began to fall ill and die of the disease that would later be termed "the Black Death." In a desperate move, as his army began to collapse from illness, Janibeg ordered that bodies of those who had died from the disease be catapulted over the fortress walls and into the center of Caffa. Whatever the disease was that had inflicted so much death and suffering on the attacking Mongols, it terrified the Genoese traders so much that they abandoned Caffa and quickly boarded ships to sail home to Italy.

Unfortunately for the Italian merchants who abandoned Caffa and sailed for Italy, the Black Death sailed with them. Ships arriving from the Black Sea anchored at Messina and other cities in Sicily where the first accounts of the Black Death in Europe were recorded. Soon after these ships arrived in late 1346, the disease began to infect populations in continental Europe. By 1347, the Black Death was firmly entrenched on the continent and moving north through Italy and Spain into southern France. It would sweep through Europe like wildfire, killing untold numbers of people, leaving some towns and cities abandoned, even killing livestock and animals. The primary wave of disease swept north, through Scandinavia. Historical documents record the last location of a disease with symptoms similar to those of the Black Death in northern Russia in 1353.

Impact of the Black Death

As it moved from Italy north through Europe, the disease was not referred to as the Black Death, but rather "the Great Pestilence" or alternatively, "the Great Mortality." As the disease infected susceptible populations and then moved on to new regions in Europe, the mood of the people soured. Depression and a feeling of the "end of the world" permeated the lives of those who survived the disease. The Flagellants, a splinter group of the Catholic Church, moved through various cities and towns in Europe, publicly whipping and mutilating themselves, in order to alleviate the epidemic, which they believed was a punishment from God. In some towns, Jews were blamed for causing the disease and burned at the stake. The networks and trading connections that began to flourish in the 12th and 13th centuries withered as xenophobia—the fear and hatred of foreigners—spread. In later centuries, the terminology for the disease changed to what we use now to describe both the disease itself and the perception of the population living through this time—the time of "the Black Death."

In the wake of the Black Death, survivors were left with societies that had lost as much as 80% of the local population to the disease. The power of the Catholic Church had peaked just before the disease erupted; the massive death toll from the epidemic led some to conclude that calls for divine protection and healing for the sick had gone unanswered, and secularism or the rejection of religion began to rise, culminating in the dawn of the Renaissance. The Black Death strongly influenced the end of the medieval period and launched a new perception of the world, including expanding geographic boundaries, a reestablishment of long-distance trading networks, and a rebirth of scientific inquiry that had been largely absent since Roman times. Within 150 years of the end of the Black Death, Christopher Columbus would bring news of the New World to Spain, and the spatial concept of the world would never again be the same. Brian Bossak Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how and why smallpox spread, as well as how it impacted the Indigenous populations of the Americas.

Context and Things to Consider Think about how smallpox spread in the Americas and why Indigenous populations succumbed to the virus while Europeans did not. Consider the impact such a large loss of life had on the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, not only on their survival, but their political future as well.

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Convinced that a more direct route to trade in Asia could be discovered by sailing west, Christopher Columbus persuaded King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I of Spain to fund an exploratory expedition in the late 15th century. In 1492, the expedition led by Columbus reached Hispaniola and successfully returned to Spain with news and evidence of a new sailing route to the "New World," or the Americas. The result of the interaction between explorers from the so-called Old World (Europe) and the numerous Indigenous inhabitants of the New World "discovered" by Columbus would soon lead to the collapse and near-annihilation of those Indigenous populations. Numerous factors played a role in the collapse of populations and civilizations in the Americas, but imported diseases such as smallpox played a significant role in such declines.

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

The first known cases of smallpox reached the Americas around 1518, nearly a quarter- century after Columbus's first visit to the West Indies. Soon after, smallpox and other imported disease decimated the populations of Indigenous inhabitants. Documentation recorded by European colonizers indicates that diseases resembling smallpox took the lives of young and old alike, and that suffering was widespread in the years between 1520 and 1550. In particular, the smallpox virus appears to have had a major impact on the Aztec Empire, sweeping through the capital city of Tenochtitlán and killing the Aztec emperor. Smallpox, and other viral diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella killed significant portions of the population in locations near or connected by trade with sites where European colonizers arrived.

The arrival of smallpox and other viral diseases was not the only factor in the near-destruction of Native American populations. Some among the populations survived the disease(s) or were immune. Yet, due to the interaction of the two worlds, one American and one European, introduction of disease sparked the destruction of previously great civilizations. The rapid death toll from European diseases wiped out healthy and weak—which left fewer people to grow and harvest crops. This left the surviving population with less food and increasing famine, which in turn lowered the survivors' ability to resist European colonization. The steel weapons, horses, armor, and primitive firearms possessed by the European colonizers were similarly decisive in the conquistadors' rapid victory over Indigenous populations.

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

In his 1997 book Guns, Germs, and Steel, historian, geographer, and anthropologist Jared Diamond explores the single direction of disease flow from Europe to the Americas. In other words, Diamond investigates: Why were the Indigenous people of the Americas so easily infected with disease spread by the European colonists when two civilizations came into contact? Why didn't the process work in reverse—why didn't the European colonists become infected with fatal diseases that had evolved in the Americas and to which the Europeans would have had little to no immunity?

Surely, there were diseases in the Americas that sickened or killed invading European colonists—diseases such as river blindness, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and other parasitic scourges—but these diseases were acquired on an individual basis and not easily spread through a population. Diamond makes the argument that the practice of animal domestication (raising and caring for animals by humans) in European societies made the difference in disease spread when the two worlds interacted. Smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and other serious viral diseases originally occurred in animals living in herds. To domesticate animals, humans had to live near them. Over centuries, such people developed immunity to the diseases carried by domesticated animals. There were few domesticated animal species in the Americas, however, and the few domesticated animals there generally did not live in close herd communities. Thus, people in the Americas had little exposure to diseases carried by animals, unlike the Europeans. The end result is what we now know from the history of European–Native American contact—diseases based on civilizational developments played a role in reshaping the human habitation of the Americas. Brian Bossak Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how and why Ebola spread in the 2014–2016 outbreak, and how it impacted people around the world.

Context and Things to Consider Think about how and why the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak was so large. Consider the immediate impacts as well as the longer term impacts of this Ebola outbreak. Compare this epidemic to the Black Death in Europe and the spread of smallpox in the early Americas. What is the same and what is different?

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

In 2014, the world learned of a growing outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa. Although isolated outbreaks of Ebola had occurred occasionally in local areas within sub-Saharan Africa, such outbreaks previously had been generally small and limited in geographic range. The 2014 outbreak was different. The spread of Ebola during 2014–2016 was also different from the Black Death and from the smallpox epidemics previously discussed in one key way: the impact of modern air travel.

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

One theory for why previous Ebola outbreaks did not spread explosively was the high death rate from the disease. Clearly, if most of the infected died from the disease, transmission would be reduced because the movement of the infected would be limited. This could have resulted in infection at the family or health-provider level, rather than expansion of the disease into wider populations. In 2014, the disease quickly expanded beyond the individual/family unit into local populations. Cases began to be documented throughout countries, and soon the disease had spread to multiple countries in West Africa. In comparison, the typical Ebola outbreak (observed since the virus was discovered in 1976) generally had no more than 20 suspected cases; confirmed cases in the 2014–2016 outbreak totaled 28,616, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both in total cases and the geographic area affected, the Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016 is the largest ever documented. However, the fatality rate was 39.5%, significantly less than the typical fatality rate observed in previous Ebola outbreaks. It is possible, but not confirmed, that the strain of Ebola virus in the 2014– 2016 outbreak was more contagious and less deadly than prior strains, which partially explains the higher case counts and larger geographical area of the outbreak.

The outbreak resulted in a significant societal impact both regionally and globally. More than 28,000 cases of Ebola were confirmed, and 11,310 died. The great majority of those were in three West African countries: Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. In West Africa, hundreds of health care workers became infected and died, hampering health care efforts in afflicted areas. Thousands of doctors, troops, and other humanitarian aid workers from around the world traveled to West Africa to care for the sick; some of those workers also contracted the disease. Ebola then jumped continents as some of those workers returned home, and as other travelers left the afflicted regions. Cases were reported in three European countries and the U.S.

Epidemic Response

News that an Ebola patient had infected health care workers in the U.S. set off a flurry of public health and public information responses and campaigns. Some members of the public requested quarantine for anyone traveling from potentially afflicted regions and an air of xenophobia quickly permeated the popular press and discussion boards. News of infected individuals in Spain and the United Kingdom provoked a multi-pronged response by public health officials in many countries. Xenophobia has been present in previous pandemics—from the Black Death to the Spanish Influenza of 1918. However, the response observed in the press and social media was different and more widespread in the press and social media for one important reason: transportation in the modern age is faster and more direct, providing a convenient means of travel for both individuals and the diseases that might infect them.

Modern air travel allows an individual to move from one location to nearly any other populated location on Earth in a day or two. Unlike previous epidemics such as the Black Death or smallpox, diseases in the modern age need not infect multiple individuals before quickly traveling to another population far away. Today, a single infected individual can potentially spread disease from one population to another, almost instantaneously. The risk of pandemics arising almost simultaneously in different parts of the globe changed forever with the dawn of the jet age.

In large part, the potential spread of Ebola was halted through caution, active medical response, and global partnerships. The close call in terms of how large the outbreak could have become in the developed world served as a wake-up message to globally interconnected societies. In the 21st century, the movement of people and goods around the world is easier and faster than ever before. While this ease of movement is beneficial for travel and trade, it also makes it that much easier for epidemics to spread rapidly from continent to continent. Brian Bossak Source

Reference

Author: Julie Dunbar, managing editor of World Geography: Understanding a Changing World. Description: This reference article examines how and why COVID-19 spread so quickly, as well as its impacts around the world.

Context and Things to Consider Think about how and why the COVID-19 pandemic is so large. Consider the health, social, and economic impacts of COVID-19. Compare this epidemic to the Black Death and smallpox in the early Americas, as well as the Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016, and think about what is the same and what is different.

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2019, a new respiratory virus called COVID-19 was discovered in the city of Wuhan in China. Believed to have originally been passed from animals to humans in a market in Wuhan, the virus affects patients differently—some exhibit no symptoms, others experience flu-like symptoms, and still others experience respiratory distress and death. Because the virus was relatively unknown and many people were unaware they'd been infected, the highly contagious virus spread rapidly around the world, infecting more than 64 million people.

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Although discovered in 2019, COVID-19 didn't become widespread in China until early 2020. In response to the virus, which began spreading in earnest at the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations, China quarantined more than 50 million people. Virtually all forms of transportation were shut down, including airports, in an effort to limit the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, cases in mainland China surged above 60,000. In response, officials enacted additional containment measures, such as restricting road access to only essential vehicles and detaining anyone attempting to escape from the lockdown areas. Infection numbers rose above 80,000 before the containment efforts proved successful. By April, China was reporting zero deaths from the virus and fewer than 40 active cases.

In late January, as cases were skyrocketing in China, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a public health emergency. Countries such as the U.K., Australia, and the United States began issuing travel bans restricting air travel to and from the China. By February, however, COVID-19 cases began to appear in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The World Health Organization declared the worldwide outbreak a pandemic in early March, raising the emergency to its highest level. By the time of the announcement, eight countries, including the U.S., were reporting more than 1,000 cases within their borders, and the virus had infected nearly 120,000 globally. Within a week, global infections had passed 200,000.

Impact of COVID-19

In a global effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries began implementing "social distancing" policies aimed at keeping people physically separated. As the virus spread, a number of local and national governments imposed quarantines and other measures, such as banning sporting events and other large gatherings and moving classroom lessons from in-person to online settings. Additional local, regional, national, and international travel bans were also imposed.

As in earlier epidemics, incidents of xenophobia increased as populations began to feel the health, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic—this time, many Asian people in non- Asian countries around the world faced discrimination and violence. The quarantines also affected businesses, causing untold economic losses as factories and workplaces were shut down and people were told to remain in their homes. Many businesses could not afford the losses and closed permanently. Others resorted to lay-offs to reduce costs.

As financial losses grew, several countries took steps to end their lockdowns, with the hope of stimulating the economy. As health experts had warned, however, ending the lockdowns resulted in case surges over the summer. As more people began gathering indoors in the fall and winter, multiple countries began experiencing new surges in cases. Countries such as Belgium, Germany, Poland, and the U.S. reported new record high infections. By the end of 2020, deaths worldwide were just under 1.5 million.

Impacts of Globalization

The first vaccine's experimental trials were completed at the end of 2020. Numerous pharmaceutical companies around the world, supported by the WHO, had begun developing vaccines in early 2020. Though vaccines normally take years to develop, pharmaceutical companies endeavored to provide safe, effective vaccines in just months. By late 2020, a handful of vaccines were showing success in trials in the U.S., Germany, China, Russia, and the U.K. One vaccine, developed jointly by U.S. company Pfizer and German company BioNTech, was approved for use in the U.K. and was awaiting approval by U.S. regulators.

Like the Black Death, smallpox, and Ebola, COVID-19 spread from country to country by way of travelers. However, the Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 outbreak spread much more quickly because of air travel. While Ebola is far deadlier than COVID-19, the 2019–2020 pandemic killed far more people for one key reason: when someone contracts Ebola, symptoms escalate rapidly, rendering the vast majority of patients bedridden and unable to spread the disease. COVID-19 symptoms, however, escalate slowly, if at all. Those infected with COVID- 19 may spread the virus without even knowing they have it. While many governments responded fairly quickly with measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, in most cases the responses proved unequal to the task. Global cooperation, however, resulted in the development of vaccines for the virus—the most promising option for containment—in record time. Julie Crea Dunbar

MLA Citation

"International Activity: Geography of Epidemics." World Geography: Understanding a Changing World, ABC-CLIO, 2021, worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052. Accessed 3 Oct. 2021.

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Exactly where the medieval disease that we call the "Black Death" started, no one knows for sure. However, historical accounts suggest that the disease likely began in ancient civilizations of central-eastern Page 2 of 15 Asia, and spread westward during the 1340s, eventually entering Europe in late 1346. Within five years, by the time the first wave of the disease had passed through Western Europe, it is estimated that as much as 60% of Europe's population had died.

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

After the development of the Silk Road trading route, Italian merchants (particularly those from Genoa) and other traders established a fortress and market area on the Crimean Peninsula bordering the Black Sea. The settlement was called Caffa. Caffa, and other trading settlements along the Black Sea, were located at the intersection of eastern and western civilizations. For many years, both civilizations participated in trading and merchant activities. However, in 1346, the Golden Horde of the Mongol Empire, under the leadership of Janibeg, attacked the fortress at Caffa again after several previous attempts to take control of the trading outpost. Around the same time, Janibeg's troops began to fall ill and die of the disease that would later be termed "the Black Death." In a desperate move, as his armyPage began 3 of 15 to collapse from illness, Janibeg ordered that bodies of those who had died from the disease be catapulted over the fortress walls and into the center of Caffa. Whatever the disease was that had inflicted so much death and suffering on the attacking Mongols, it terrified the Genoese traders so much that they abandoned Caffa and quickly boarded ships to sail home to Italy.

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

In the wake of the Black Death, survivors were left with societies that had lost as much as 80% of the local population to the disease. The power of the Catholic Church had peaked just before the disease erupted; the massive death toll from the epidemic led some to concludePage 4 of 15 that calls for divine protection and healing for the sick had gone unanswered, and secularism or the rejection of religion began to rise, culminating in the dawn of the Renaissance. The Black Death strongly influenced the end of the medieval period and launched a new perception of the world, including expanding geographic boundaries, a reestablishment of long-distance trading networks, and a rebirth of scientific inquiry that had been largely absent since Roman times. Within 150 years of the end of the Black Death, Christopher Columbus would bring news of the New World to Spain, and the spatial concept of the world would never again be the same. Brian Bossak Source

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Convinced that a more direct route to trade in Asia could be discovered by sailing west, Christopher Columbus persuaded King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I of Spain to fund an exploratory expedition in the late 15th century. In 1492, the expedition led by Columbus reached Hispaniola and successfully returned to Spain with news and evidence of a new sailing route to the "New World," or the Americas. The result of the interaction between explorers from the so-called Old World (Europe) and the numerous Indigenous inhabitants of the New World "discovered" by Columbus would soon lead to the collapse and near-annihilation of those Indigenous populations. Numerous factors played a role in the collapse of populations and civilizations in Page 5 of 15 the Americas, but imported diseases such as smallpox played a significant role in such declines.

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

The first known cases of smallpox reached the Americas around 1518, nearly a quarter- century after Columbus's first visit to the West Indies. Soon after, smallpox and other imported disease decimated the populations of Indigenous inhabitants. Documentation recorded by European colonizers indicates that diseases resembling smallpox took the lives of young and old alike, and that suffering was widespread in the years between 1520 and 1550. In particular, the smallpox virus appears to have had a major impact on the Aztec Empire, sweeping through the capital city of Tenochtitlán and killing the Aztec emperor.Page 6 of 15 Smallpox, and other viral diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella killed significant portions of the population in locations near or connected by trade with sites where European colonizers arrived.

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Surely, there were diseases in the Americas that sickened or killed invading European colonists—diseases such as river blindness, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and other parasitic scourges—but these diseases were acquired on an individual basis and not easily spread through a population. Diamond makes the argument that the practice of animal domestication (raising and caring for animals by humans) in European societies made the difference in disease spread when the two worlds interacted. Smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and other serious viral diseases originally occurred in animals living in herds. To domesticate animals, humans had to live near them. Over centuries, such people developed immunity to the diseases carried by domesticated animals. There were few domesticated animal species in the Americas, however, and the few domesticated animals there generally did not live in close herd communities. Thus, people in the Americas had little exposure to diseases carried by animals, unlike the Europeans. The end result is what we now knowPage from7 of 15 the history of European–Native American contact—diseases based on civilizational developments played a role in reshaping the human habitation of the Americas. Brian Bossak Source

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

One theory for why previous Ebola outbreaks did not spread explosively was the high death rate from the disease. Clearly, if most of the infected died from the disease, transmission would be reduced because the movement of the infected would be limited. This could have resulted in infection at the family or health-provider level, rather than expansion of the disease into wider populations. In 2014, the disease quickly expanded beyond the individual/family unit into local populations. Cases began to be documented throughout countries, andPage soon 8 of 15 the disease had spread to multiple countries in West Africa. In comparison, the typical Ebola outbreak (observed since the virus was discovered in 1976) generally had no more than 20 suspected cases; confirmed cases in the 2014–2016 outbreak totaled 28,616, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both in total cases and the geographic area affected, the Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016 is the largest ever documented. However, the fatality rate was 39.5%, significantly less than the typical fatality rate observed in previous Ebola outbreaks. It is possible, but not confirmed, that the strain of Ebola virus in the 2014– 2016 outbreak was more contagious and less deadly than prior strains, which partially explains the higher case counts and larger geographical area of the outbreak.

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

One theory for why previous Ebola outbreaks did not spread explosively was the high death rate from the disease. Clearly, if most of the infected died from the disease, transmission would be reduced because the movement of the infected would be limited. This could have resulted in infection at the family or health-provider level, rather than expansion of the disease into wider populations. In 2014, the disease quickly expanded beyond the individual/family unit into local populations. Cases began to be documented throughout countries, and soon the disease had spread to multiple countries in West Africa. In comparison, the typical Ebola outbreak (observed since the virus was discovered in 1976) generally had no more than 20 suspected cases; confirmed cases in the 2014–2016 outbreak totaled 28,616, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both in total cases and the geographicPage area9 of 15 affected, the Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016 is the largest ever documented. However, the fatality rate was 39.5%, significantly less than the typical fatality rate observed in previous Ebola outbreaks. It is possible, but not confirmed, that the strain of Ebola virus in the 2014– 2016 outbreak was more contagious and less deadly than prior strains, which partially explains the higher case counts and larger geographical area of the outbreak.

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Modern air travel allows an individual to move from one location to nearly any other populated location on Earth in a day or two. Unlike previous epidemics such as the Black Death or smallpox, diseases in the modern age need not infect multiple individuals before quickly traveling to another population far away. Today, a single infected individual can potentially spread disease from one population to another, almost instantaneously. The risk of pandemics arising almostPage 10 of 15 simultaneously in different parts of the globe changed forever with the dawn of the jet age.

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

The first vaccine's experimental trials were completed at the end of 2020. Numerous pharmaceutical companies around the world, supported by the WHO, had begun developing vaccines in early 2020. Though vaccines normally take years to develop, pharmaceuticalPage 13 of 15 companies endeavored to provide safe, effective vaccines in just months. By late 2020, a handful of vaccines were showing success in trials in the U.S., Germany, China, Russia, and the U.K. One vaccine, developed jointly by U.S. company Pfizer and German company BioNTech, was approved for use in the U.K. and was awaiting approval by U.S. regulators.

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052

Page 14 of 15 Geography of Epidemics

Activity

Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Clarifying Questions What are the four epidemics discussed in the essays, their time periods, and their locations? Who did each epidemic impact?

Background Information

Research by medical geographers has helped lower the transmission of disease, find the causes of disease, and even explain certain historical events. Source

Reference

Author: Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health Description: This reference article examines how the Black Death spread and how it affected Europe's population and society.

Geography and the Black Death

Origin and Spread of the Black Death

Impact of the Black Death

Reference

Geography and the Spread of Smallpox in the Americas

Origins and Impact of Smallpox

Why was Smallpox so Deadly to Indigenous Populations?

Reference

Geography and the Ebola Outbreak of 2014–2016

Origins and Impact of Ebola in 2014–2016

Epidemic Response

Reference

Geography and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Origin and Spread of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

Impacts of Globalization

MLA Citation

This content may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes only. https://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Support/InvestigateActivity/1939052

Page 15 of 15 Name NameName Class ClassNameClass Name Class Was Aaron Burr a Traitor?Class Geography of Epidemics Collect andWas AaronOrganize Burr a Traitor? Information CollectCompare and Organize and Contrast Information Present your own argument claiming whether or not Aaron Burr was a traitor Inquiry Question The Reformation began when German theologian Martin Luther challenged to the U.S. Inquiry Question the authority of the Catholic Church, and Luther's ideas quickly spread Presentbeyond Wittenberg, your own argument along with claiming the ideas whether of other or notreformers. Aaron Burr Ana waslyze athe traitor Inquiry Question After learning about the notable past epidemics discussed in the readings, toprovided the U.S. resources to examine the role that political motivations played in Inquiry Question compare the examples to describe how these epidemics impacted societies. influencing the spread of Protestantism in Europe. Give reasons for the extent of each epidemic's impact. Type 2-col, 1 row table Type Mindmap4 TypeHeadingsImpact on Societies2-col,Column 1 row Headings: table Evidence: Guilty, Evidence: Innocent.Reasons for Impact Headings 4 Left Hand Boxes- Leaders/Organizations HeadingsTypeOther Notes ColumnMindmap4there's too Headings: much evidence Evidence: on Guilty, either Evidence: side for the Innocent. #7 layout to cover it all Other Notes there's4 Right too Hand much boxes--Strategies evidence on either Used side for the #7 layout to cover it all OtherHeadings Notes there's44 Left Middle Hand too Boxes: much Boxes- evidence Leaders/OrganizationsBlack on either Death side for the #7 layout to cover it all 4Box Right on HandRow 1: boxes--Strategies Montgomery Bus Used Boycott (1955-1956) Box4 Middle Row 2: Boxes: Little Rock Desegregation Crisis (1957) BoxRow on 3 Box: Row Birmingham 1: Montgomery Campaign Bus Boycott (1963) (1955-1956) BoxRow Row 4 Box: 2: Freedom Little Rock Summer Desegregation (1964) Crisis (1957) Row 3 Box: Birmingham Campaign (1963) Other NotesImpact on SocietiesRowPlease 4 Box: place Freedom the name Summer of the Event (1964) on one line and theReasons parenthetical for Impact dating on a separate line just below the event name, so Other Notes PleaseMontgomery place the Bus name Boycott of the Event on one line and the parenthetical dating on a separate(1955-1956) line just below the event name, so Montgomery Bus BoycottSmallpox (1955-1956)

Impact on Societies Reasons for Impact

Ebola

Impact on Societies Reasons for Impact

COVID-19

Inquiry Question Inquiry Question How do epidemics impact societies?

Response Response