Lessons (Un)Learned in Public Health and Humanitarian Response: A Historical Perspective

Public health challenges complicate the response to humanitarian crises around the world, including disease outbreaks, war, and forcible displacement. Although the common narrative in our field is that the complex social, political and ideological challenges we're facing is unprecedented, an examination of the history of public health in acute crises reveals that many struggles confronting us today are neither entirely novel nor unique. This course posits that public health experts rarely understand the full nature of previous crises, and argues that a better understanding of historical events will improve our response to future crises. Through thoughtful reflection and interactive discussion, we will explore the oft-repeated themes that continue to challenge public health and humanitarian response to this day, and examine the progress we’ve made as a field. Most importantly, we will question why lessons identified so often fail to become