Four historians discuss what we learn from history about how diseases spread, and how we respond to them.

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John Henderson: ‘Strategies to cope with plague have formed the basis for later policies’. Read by Paul Lay.

Patricia Fara: ‘Fear and suspicion multiply more rapidly than any virus’. Read by Katie Holyoak.

Samuel Cohn: ‘Epidemics strike from the outside and are carried in’. Read by Paul Lay.

Sandra Hempel: ‘Smallpox remains the only human disease to be eradicated’. Read by Katie Holyoak.

Introductions read by James Gribben. Music by Kai Engel.

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