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Profs and Pints DC presents: “A Bird’s-Eye View of the Flu,” on the centuries-long struggle to contain the influenza virus and why it keeps roaring back, with Alexandra M. Lord, a curator and the chair of the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
Even if you did not catch the flu this winter, you almost certainly have felt the effects of bird flu on your wallet if you shop for eggs.
What you might not have realized at the time is that birds, eggs, and influenza are linked together in many other ways having nothing to do with grocery prices.
Learn about the long history of influenza pandemics and the fascinating connections between birds, eggs, influenza, and flu vaccines from Alexandra M. Lord, who in addition to her work at the Smithsonian is a former historian for the United States Public Health Service.
Dr. Lord, who previously gave excellent Profs and Pints talks on the history of contraception, will give an overview of efforts to contain and control influenza over the last two hundred and fifty years. She’ll explore why some pandemics, such as that of 1918-1919, led to millions of deaths while others, such as that of 1957-1958, sputtered out before they did real damage.
You’ll learn how the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic prompted scientists both in and outside the federal government to work to develop an understanding of the influenza virus in hopes of predicting and preventing future pandemics.
To their dismay, scientists have discovered that the influenza virus constantly drifts and shifts, making it difficult to predict. Although an influenza vaccine was developed in the 1940s, the constantly evolving nature of the virus has meant that this vaccine needs to be updated every year to reflect changes in the virus.
Multiple different players have played a role not just in tracking the disease but also in helping to create these new vaccines. They include not just scientists but poultry farmers whose eggs are used to produce the vaccine. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: The vaccine formulated to combat the influenza strain that caused the Asian Flu pandemic of 1957-58 (National Museum of American History / The Fournet Drugstore Collection).
