The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was the deadliest contagious calamity in human history, killing 650,000 people in the United States and 50 million worldwide. But the pandemic's effects varied geographically - some communities were devastated while others suffered few if any deaths. To learn why, Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.P. and Alexandra Minna Stern, Ph.D., conduct a comprehensive review of the strategies used by 43 U.S. cities during the 1918-1919 flu epidemic. Markel and Stern examine such public health measures as isolation of the ill, quarantines on those suspected of contact with the ill, school closures, and bans on public gatherings. They also analyze the cities' demographic and housing characteristics, morbidity and mortality patterns, political leadership and coordination among government agencies, supply of health care facilities and medical personnel, and compliance with public health measures. Their project, History Informing Public Health Preparedness Policy in the 21st Century: A Qualitative Study of NonPharmaceutical Interventions and Community Experiences during the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic, aims to extract lessons that can inform pubic health policymaking and preparedness planning today.

Since 2005 Professor Stern has served as Co-PI on several major research projects on the 1918-9 influenza pandemic in the United States, funded by Defense Threat Reduction Agency-DOD and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control. The ongoing aim of this research, now extended to studying the experiences of more than 40 U.S. cities during 1918-9, is to extract lessons from the past to inform contemporary pandemic preparedness planning. Professor Stern is particularly interested in issues of community compliance and governance as they relate to the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions during epidemics.