The Covid-19 pandemic transformed over the past five years from a catastrophic threat that has to what most people regard today as a tolerable annoyance that doesn’t require precaution. Nonetheless, Covid-19 continues to and cause severe illness in the infirm or elderly.

The evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic – from devastation, to optimism for eradication, to persistent, uneven spread of disease – may seem unprecedented. As , however, I see similarities to other epidemics, including syphilis, AIDS and tuberculosis.

Vaccines, medications and other biomedical breakthroughs are necessary to eliminate epidemic diseases. But as I explore in my book, , social, economic and political factors are equally important. On its own, medical science is not enough.

first identified in 1495. It causes skin rashes and may progress to causing paralysis, blindness or both. For centuries, syphilis weakened nations by disabling parents, workers and soldiers in the prime of their lives. Innovative drugs – first (1909), then (1943) – offered a path toward eradication when used together with widespread testing.

Public health programmes conducted from the 1930s through the 2000s, however, failed –