Rae-Ellen W. Kavey & Allison B. Kavey: Viral Pandemics: From Smallpox to Covid-19

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Authors in conversation with infectious disease specialist Dr. Lawrence N. Chessin.

Written by a public health practitioner and a medical historian, Viral Pandemics explores the world of viruses as the cause of all acute pandemics since 1900, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The historiographic narrative illuminates the critical dual roles of viral biology and increasing global interconnectedness that have resulted in an escalating pandemic spiral. Scientific information is presented in an accessible, straightforward style in compelling narratives that introduce the extraordinary universe of diverse, opportunistic viruses whose remarkable capacities make them formidable adversaries. The book makes it clear that global viral disease challenges are a persistent reality with the potential to cause catastrophic loss of life and major social and economic damage. A summary chapter draws together lessons learned and develops a proposed multidisciplinary global response.

Rae-Ellen W. Kavey, MD, MPH is a pediatric cardiologist and public health practitioner with a career-long commitment to traditional medicine and a public health approach to the prevention of heart disease. While at the National Institutes of Health, she directed development of the current national guidelines for pediatric cardiovascular health. Author of more than q00 articles and four book chapters, she is currently a consultant to the NIH Pediatric Heart Network, an instructor in the Department of Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and an adjunct professor in the Department of History at the CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she teaches the epidemiology of epidemics to undergraduates.

Allison B. Kavey, PH.D is a professor of history at CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the CUNY Graduate Centre. She specializes in early modern history of natural philosophy and has written on alchemy and books of secrets, as well as Agrippa von Nettesheim’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy. She has taught extensively in the history of medicine and written on the history of anatomy, most recently relating to Shelley’s Frankenstein. She holds a doctorate in the history of medicine from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.