Seminar, four hours. Discussion and analysis of COVID-19. Exploration of scientific characteristics and historical manifestations of group of epidemic diseases that have shaped civilization: bubonic plague, smallpox, yellow fever, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, polio, hemorrhagic fevers, and AIDS. Examination of biomedical characteristics of disease: causative agent or process; pathological effects in human body; course of disease; and epidemiological patterns of incidence and severity. Focus on each case during the period when it exercised its greatest effects. Emphasis on how historical manifestations of, and reactions to disease, are deeply embedded in social and economic structures, and medical knowledge, of its time. P/NP or letter grading.