This article explores a smattering of thematic questions that criss-cross the articles in this special pandemics issue; it signposts some reverberations, overlapping responses, and problematic comparisons currently (mid 2020) being made between past pandemics and the tense experiences (and projections going forward) of COVID-19 across the world. The historical pandemics covered here offer an entry point to a fruitful set of genealogies, chronologies, epidemiologies, trajectories, and imaginaries linked to a host of issues: what makes a pandemic ‘global’? What does a global history perspective bring to the table? How does examining germs and genomes shed light on imperialism as a/the pandemic driver? Where do animals, the environment, and ecology fit in and why are they so often excluded from pandemic histories? What counts as medical humanitarianism when health knowledge, know-how, and cooperation ‘from below’ are sidelined? And what came/comes first: a pandemic or a changed world?

中文翻译：

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透视流行病：（如何）流行病历史纵横交错？

本文探讨了在本期流行病特刊中纵横交错的一些主题问题；它标志着目前（2020 年中期）在过去的流行病与全球 COVID-19 的紧张经历（和未来的预测）之间进行的一些反响、重叠的反应和有问题的比较。此处涵盖的历史流行病提供了一个切入点，让我们了解与一系列问题相关的一系列富有成果的谱系、年表、流行病学、轨迹和想象：是什么让流行病“全球性”？全球历史视角带来了什么？检查细菌和基因组如何揭示帝国主义是大流行的驱动因素？动物在哪里，环境，和生态相适应，为什么它们经常被排除在大流行病史之外？当健康知识、技术诀窍和“自下而上”的合作被搁置时，什么才是医学人道主义？什么先出现/先出现：流行病还是改变了的世界？