Pandemics and Epidemics

 

 Until this past year, the terms “face masks”, “pandemics”, “epidemics”, and “quarantine” did not hold much meaning for most of us, because we had very limited experience with them.  Now, those terms are easily a part of our everyday vocabularies. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the COVID-19 virus was officially a pandemic after going through 114 countries in three months and infecting over 118,000 people. Without a vaccine available, the virus that began in China quickly spread to almost every country in the world. By December 2020, it had infected more than 75 million people and led to more than 1.6 million deaths worldwide. 

The ongoing prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused us to seek more information on pandemics in general and try to understand what causes them and the history of major pandemics.  As far as infectious diseases are concerned, a pandemic is the worst case scenario. When an epidemic spreads beyond a country’s borders, the disease officially becomes a pandemic.  The mobility of today’s world population can quickly and easily change an epidemic to a pandemic. 

The earliest known major pandemic happened in Athens in 430 B.C. during the Peloponnesian War and took the lives of two thirds of the population.  There have been three major bubonic plagues.  In what is believed to be the first bubonic plague, the Justinian Plague in 541 A.D. over two centuries killed 50 million people which was 26 percent of the world’s population. It was started by rats and carried by fleas.  The Black Death in 1350, the second large outbreak of the bubonic plague, was responsible for the death of one third of the world population.  It started in Asia and moved west in caravans.  In 1855 the Third Bubonic Plague Pandemic, claiming 15 million lives, started in China and then moved to India and Hong Kong.  This pandemic was considered active until 1960 when cases finally dropped below 200. 

Affecting many in the United States, the 1918 Spanish flu caused 50 million deaths worldwide. Within a few months of its onset in the United States, hundreds of thousands died. At that time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this flu strain. In 1919, the flu threat disappeared when most of those infected either developed immunities or died. 

We currently have a display of many books on plagues, epidemics, pandemics, and Covid-19 at the Al Harris Library.  To gain a better understanding of these topics, come by and check out a book!  

 

                                  
                              

 

 

 

 

 

SWOSU Jazz Festival, February 11-12, 2021

The 51st Annual Jazz Festival sponsored by the SWOSU Department of Music will be held virtually this year on February 11-12. The concerts featuring the Stockton Helbing Trio will be livestreamed from Crystal Clear Studios in Dallas. Stockton Helbing is not only a drummer, but also a composer, arranger, producer, band leader, educator, music director, author, and entrepreneur. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Drumset at the University of North Texas.  

Stockton maintains a busy schedule of performing, recording, and teaching around North America with his trio, quartet, quintet, and sextet. Stockston has released seven albums to date: Lodestar (2005), For Nothing is Secret (2007), Battlestations & Escape Plans (2010), Crazy Aquarius (2012), Handprints (2014), Patina (2015), and Swimming in Place (2017).   

For more information on the Jazz Festival visit swosujazz.com. 

Be sure to stop by the Library and check out our display of books and videos on jazz music and musicians!   

 

 

 

Black History Month 2021 - The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity

Each year February 1 marks the start of Black History Month, a federally recognized celebration of the contributions African Americans have made to this country and a time to reflect on the continued struggle for racial justice.

Carter G. Woodson, known as the "Father of Black History," developed Black History Month. Woodson, whose parents were enslaved, was an author, historian and the second African American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard University. He recognized that the American education system offered very little information about the accomplishments of African Americans and founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

In 1926, Woodson proposed a national “Negro History Week," which was intended to showcase everything students learned about Black history throughout the school year. Woodson chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a famed abolitionist who escaped from slavery, and President Abraham Lincoln, who formally abolished slavery.

In 1976, during the height of the civil rights movement, President Gerald Ford expanded the week into Black History Month. Since then, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme.

The theme of Black History Month 2021 is "The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity," chosen by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. This theme explores the African diaspora, and the spread of Black families across the United States.

To celebrate Black History Month this year, the Al Harris Library is displaying books and videos that recognize the achievements and contributions of Black Americans. Please come by and check it out!