Pandemics

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Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The reconcilliation between Thomas Becket and Henry II. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

From the handshake to the high-five: a brief history of gestures

Immigrant children are examined by a city health officer upon arrival at the battery from Ellis Island during a Typhus scare, c1911. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

A short history of quarantine

Wartime evacuees wash their hands

“The very sight of her hands did almost turn my stomach”: a brief history of hand-washing

Did medieval people take baths? This 15th-century illustration would suggest so – and shows a man climbing out of a tub. Medieval doctors prescribed bathing as a cure for conditions ranging from bladder stones to melancholy. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The (not so) stinky Middle Ages: why medieval people were cleaner than we think

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Doctor treating a patient, from a 14th-century manuscript. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Medieval medicine . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Paul Morland. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interview with Paul Morland: “Even the Spanish flu pandemic wasn’t enough to stop population growth” . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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An introduction to the Black Death

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A 14th-century Flemish illustration depicting the burying of plague victims in coffins in Tournai in 1349. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Black Death: “Oh father, why have you abandoned me?” . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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A contemporary pictorial depiction of the Great Plague.

The Black Death: the historians’ view . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Podcast Website large Katherine Arnold

The Spanish Flu pandemic . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Chinese plague

Q&A What was the Third Plague pandemic?

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The Black Death and Tudor adventurers . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The Black Death, the effects of which are pictured in this medieval miniature, took little more than seven years to wipe out around half of mankind. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

History explorer: the catastrophe of the Black Death . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of couple with bubonic plague

Where the Black Death happened: 9 places connected to the plague