Prof. Dr. Mark Harrison
University of Oxford
The Price of Freedom:
Lessons Learned from Covid-19 and other Pandemics
For additional details, please go here.
When:
28 February, 2024: 18.00 – 19.30
Where:
VUB Health Campus Jette
Laarbeeklaan 103
1090 Jette
*Free of charge*
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel and VUB professor Cornelis J Schilt invite you to an exclusive lecture and discussion about the impact of epidemics on our societies, civil rights and freedoms.
Bubonic plague, flu, TB, Ebola, Sars, HIV and more recently Covid-19: it’s hard to overstate the role of epidemics and pandemics in our history. They have a significant impact on our social and economic life. Preventive measures and safety protocols need to prevent diseases from spreading, but at the same time they limit the freedom of the people they are intended to protect. What is reasonable and what is exaggerated when national and international health security are at stake?
From the mediaeval bubonic plague to Covid-19, a pandemic always creates significant economic and social impact. British professor Mark Harrison, a historian at Oxford University and security adviser to the British government during the Covid pandemic, researches epidemics and the measures that governments take to contain them. “We are not ready for another pandemic. Confidence is gone, polarisation is worse than ever. If you don’t address that, all health measures are doomed to fail.” On 28 Febraury, Prof. Harrison is giving a lecture at VUB.
Anyone who thought Covid-19 was exceptional wasn’t paying attention in history class. In the middle of the 14th century, bubonic plague caused death and chaos worldwide. The Black Death was extremely contagious – touching infected clothes was enough to contract the disease – and deadly. In five years, more than 20 million people died in Europe alone, nearly a third of the population at the time. By comparison, Covid-19 has killed 7 million people worldwide.
The social, economic and cultural impact of the Black Death was enormous. Yet Mark Harrison, professor of the history of medicine at Oxford University, sees a positive: the first public health measures and organisations emerged in the wake of the plague.
Professor Mark Harrison specialises in the history of epidemics and the measures taken around the world to contain then. Epidemics from the past determine how we deal with pandemics today. When do they become a national security risk? How is that risk assessed? Why does that assessment differ between countries and governments? Why do different countries implement different measures and why does one country have a more effective containment policy than another? Professor Harrison looks back and places our knowledge of epidemics such as bubonic plague, AIDS and Covid-19 in a historic and international context.
After the lecture, Mark Harrison and Cornelis J. Schilt will discuss the responsibilities of governments during international health crises and the restriction of individual freedoms in the service of national security. The battle between collective health and individual freedom raises difficult questions. What is reasonable, what is exaggerated? The moderator of the discussion is philosopher Alicja Gescinska, curator of the VUB Pauwels Academy for Critical Thinking.
From the file: PACT Pauwels Academy of Critical Thinking, Public programme