Pandemics – How Diseases Spread

A pandemic is what happens when a new infectious disease spreads across the globe, and the mathematics of that spread is both simpler and stranger than it seems. This episode unpacks how epidemics grow, where new diseases come from, what a number like R0 really means, and what recent history has taught us — handled soberly, as befits a serious subject.

You'll come away understanding the difference between an outbreak, an epidemic and a pandemic, why exponential growth is so counter-intuitive, how diseases jump from animals to humans, and what actually slows a pandemic down.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: World Health Organization – epidemic and pandemic preparedness; Australian Department of Health – communicable disease resources; CDC – “Principles of Epidemiology”.