By combining historical demography and epidemiology, we can (sort of) determine how people throughout history have died.

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

• Comorbidity: the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.
• Schistosomiasis: a disease caused by liver flukes that has affected humans for more than 100,000 years.
• Meta-analysis: an examination of data from a number of independent studies of the same subject, in order to determine overall trends.
• Prehistory: the period between when modern humans first appeared and the dawn of agriculture.
• Columbian exchange: the process by which plants, animals, diseases, people, and ideas were introduced from Europe, Asia, and Africa to North and South America and vice versa.
• Zoonosis: a disease which can be transmitted to humans from animals.

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CREDITS

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David Goldenberg | Script Writer & Narrator Lizah van der Aart | Illustration Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Illustration Ever Salazar | Video Editor & Director Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES

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Boyle, P. (2021). How are COVID-19 deaths counted? It’s complicated. AAMC News. https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/how-are-covid-19-deaths-counted-it-s-complicated

Webb J., Jr (2020). Historical epidemiology and global health history. Historia, ciencias, saude--Manguinhos, 27(suppl 1), 13–28. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702020000300002

Webb, J. (2022). On Writing the History of Human Infectious Disease. Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 53(2): 319-327. https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh_a_01836

Webb, J. (2022). Personal Communication. Department of History, Colby College: https://www.colby.edu/historydept/james-l-a-webb-jr

Stearns, P. (2021). The Routledge History of Death Since 1800. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/1f595227-b42c-4cea-9110-099cb86e59df/

Roser, M. (2022). Longtermism: The future is vast – what does this mean for our own life?. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/longtermism

Kandea, T. and Haub, C. (2022) How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? Population Reference Bureau. https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/

Wolfe ND, Dunavan CP, Diamond J. Origins of major human infectious diseases. Nature. 2007 May 17;447(7142):279-83. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7095142/

Historical Violence Database. Part of the OSU Criminal Justice Research Center: https://cjrc.osu.edu/research/interdisciplinary/hvd

Roser, M. (2013). Ethnographic and archaeological evidence on violent deaths. Our World in Data. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/ethnographic-and-archaeological-evidence-on-violent-deaths

Roser, M. and Ritchie, H. (2013). "Maternal Mortality". Our World in Data. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality

Institute of Medicine (2004). Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/11017

Carter, R. & Mendis, K. (2002). Evolutionary and Historical Aspects of The Burden of Malaria. Clinical microbiology reviews. 15. 564-94. https://doi.org/10.1128/CMR.15.4.564-594.2002