{"id":6114,"date":"2019-09-27T12:17:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T16:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=6114"},"modified":"2026-05-11T15:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:41:19","slug":"new-york-times-journalist-tells-story-of-deadly-flu-pandemic-at-pvms-ideas-festival-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/new-york-times-journalist-tells-story-of-deadly-flu-pandemic-at-pvms-ideas-festival-event.php","title":{"rendered":"New York Times Journalist Tells Story of Deadly Flu Pandemic at PVM\u2019s Ideas Festival Event"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Gina
Author and New York Times journalist Gina Kolata (center) responds to a question during a panel discussion in Lynn Hall that also featured (left-right) School of Nursing professor emeritus Pamela Aaltonen; Suresh Mittal, PVM distinguished professor of virology; Ekramy Sayedahmed, post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology; and professor and head of the Brian Lamb School of Communication Marifran Mattson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Gina Kolata, author of \u201cFlu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918,\u201d recounted key details of the 1918 flu pandemic during her talk addressing the topic, \u201cWhat IF the Next Pandemic is Inevitable?\u201d on September 23 in Loeb Playhouse.  Characterizing her book as a medical detective story, Kolata shared how the deadly 1918 flu strain affected young, healthy individuals and spread rapidly across the world.  It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world\u2019s population became infected with the virus. Her remarks facilitated discussion of how research on the 1918 outbreak offers insights regarding the next potential pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was part of Purdue\u2019s Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of Purdue\u2019s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign, which is a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation on the most critical problems facing the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kolata is a two-time runner-up for the Pulitzer prize for her writing at The New York Times, where she works as a science and medicine reporter.  The author of six books, Kolata is a graduate of the molecular biology program at M.I.T. and received her master\u2019s in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Dean
Dean Willie Reed receives his flu shot courtesy of a team of pharmacy students under the guidance of Purdue University Pharmacy Director Nicole Noel, while College of Pharmacy Dean Eric Barker looks on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Following the talk, as a way of demonstrating first-hand the importance of vaccination in flu prevention, Purdue Veterinary Medicine Dean Willie Reed; Dean Marion Underwood, of the College of Health and Human Sciences; and College of Pharmacy Dean Eric Barker all rolled up their sleeves and received their annual flu shots on stage.  Also that afternoon, a flu shot clinic was available in the foyer outside of Loeb Playhouse for faculty and staff who wanted to get a flu shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus then shifted to Lynn Hall for the remainder of the afternoon, as a panel of experts took up discussion of the topic, \u201cThe Current and Future Role of Vaccination in Global Health.\u201d  The panel was moderated by Dr. Harm HogenEsch, Purdue Veterinary Medicine associate dean for research and professor of immunopathology.  Joining Kolata on the panel were Pamela M. Aaltonen, professor emeritus from the Purdue School of Nursing; Marifran Mattson, professor and head of Purdue\u2019s Brian Lamb School of Communication; and Suresh Mittal, PVM distinguished professor of virology, and Ekramy Sayedahmed, post-doctoral research associate, both of the PVM Department of Comparative Pathobiology.  Prompted by questions from Dr. HogenEsch and audience members, the panelists engaged in a robust discussion about flu vaccines, pandemic outbreaks, vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination concerns, as well as communication strategies related to public health.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reception in the Lynn Hall Veterinary Medical Library concluded the day\u2019s schedule, providing an opportunity for guests to meet and interact with Kolata and members of the panel.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The College of Veterinary Medicine is focusing on the Ideas Festival\u2019s theme of \u201cHealth, Longevity, and Quality of Life\u201d during the month of September, which is the featured month at Purdue for celebrating PVM\u2019s contributions to 150 Years of Giant Leaps.\u00a0 The September 23 invited talk by Kolata was co-sponsored by PVM, the College of Health and Human Sciences\u2019 Public Health Program<\/a>, and the IU School of Medicine-West Lafayette<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to watch a recording of Kolata’s talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gina Kolata, author of \u201cFlu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918,\u201d recounted key details of the 1918 flu pandemic during her talk addressing the topic, \u201cWhat IF the Next Pandemic is Inevitable?\u201d on September 23 in Loeb Playhouse. The event was part of Purdue\u2019s Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of Purdue\u2019s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign, which is a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation on the most critical problems facing the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,28,11],"tags":[965,1292,26,1288,602,1286,56,251,1290,250,600,625],"class_list":["post-6114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-engagement","category-our-impact","category-research","tag-150-years-of-giant-leaps","tag-ekramy-sayedahmed","tag-featured-story","tag-flu","tag-giant-leaps","tag-gina-kolata","tag-homepage","tag-ideas-festival","tag-influenza-pandemic","tag-sesquicentennial","tag-special-event","tag-suresh-mittal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6114"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33677,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions\/33677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}