Faculty and staff are invited to watch the next edition of the Disaster Resilience Analytics Center Seminar Series featuring Dr. George Dehner, associate professor Wichita State Department of History associate professor, noon-1 p.m. March 4 via Zoom. The presentation is titled “Translating Science into Decisions: Influenza Pandemics in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.”
During the presentation, Dehner will discuss how the sciences and policymakers play complementary roles in crafting public health responses. While often acting harmoniously, because of the differences in assessing risk and crafting recommendations, there can be friction in the process of decision-making. By examining influenza pandemic responses—notably the 1976 Swine flu pandemic and the Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Pandemic in 2009—it is apparent there was discordance between researchers and policymakers in crafting policy responses.
Dehner is a world environmental historian who examines the intersection of humans and disease in the modern era. His first book “Influenza: A Century of Science and Public Health” was published in April 2012 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. His second book “Global Flu and You: A History of Influenza” was published in December 2012 by Reaktion Press. His article “WHO Knows Best? National and International Responses to Pandemic Threats and the ‘Lessons’ of 1976” was published in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. The article received the 2011 Margaret T. Lane/Virginia F. Saunders Memorial Research Award by the American Library Association Government Documents Roundtable.
Dehner is currently working on a research project on Legionnaires’ Disease. Dehner has recently presented his perspectives in “Influenza pandemics since Russian Flu: Do they provide insight to COVID-19?” as part of a Fairmont College of Liberal Arts and Sciences series, Perspectives on the Pandemic.
The meeting will be recorded and the recorded video will be posted on YouTube.
