①As I had just read the 緊急提言パンデミック by Yuval Noah Harari (excerpts of contributes
to newspapers by him and interviews), it fascinated me to know what others have in mind in
the group discussion.
I was blindly aware that this current pandemic must be the most widely spread pandemic of
the modern history, but to see and compare the actual numbers with past pandemics was anastonishment. After seeing the numbers of COVID-19, SARS seemed like nothing.
②Since I'm not a student majoring in medicine, it was really a great opportunity for me tounderstand the mechanism of a pandemic as well as its history. Besides, the two case studies
were also very interesting. While considering both of them are the reality we are facing andwe will face in every pandemic, it is rather difficult to offer a solid answer. I believe many
people acknowledged how important it is to learn from history during the pandemic, just like
we rethought the distribution of medicine in the class. But I think what matters most is how
long we can remember all these thoughts and all these pains. I really hope everyone could
remember this pandemic not only because it was a boring 2020 but also because we don't
want another severe pandemic like this again at any time. Again, thank you for the precious
lecture, and it made me learn a lot and think a lot.
③Thank you for the interesting lecture and discussion.
I thought it really difficult to tackle on epidemic diseases, like the situation now in the world.
Since the world is getting smaller (in terms of time and cost) than the pandemic before COVID,
I think it important for the international organization like WHO to take initiative and try toaccelerate international cooperation.
In the lecture, you mentioned the social change which were brought by the “Black Death”, likechanges in political system, role of church, and situation of labor. I did think that similar change
might occur in global point of view. Even in Japan, people’s attitude toward transportation and“remote work” changed over the last 8 months. As a student in Civil Engineering, I want tothink how we can build cities better and more resilient to infections, and adapt cities to thechanges, following the example of civil engineers in 19th century who put a great deal of effort
to improve sewage system after the spread of cholera.
Thank you again for the lecture.
④Thank you for your great lecture. Since this was the first chance for me to be taught thehistory of infectious diseases systematically, the lecture was a very valuable opportunity.
What was particularly interesting for me was that a population of less than a few thousandpeople cannot sustain an epidemic of an acute infectious disease such as measles. This itself
was interesting, and what is more, the fact that several pieces of research have been
conducted on both real groups and simulations was stimulating to me.
I would like to be more familiar with the study of infectious diseases from a mathematical pointof view. I believe that this corona pandemic, which revealed that we still have things to do inthis field, will accelerate such kind of researches. I also like to contribute to the process, in thefuture. Again, I appreciate this amazing opportunity.
⑤First of all, thank you for the lesson last Saturday.
Especially, lecture about the history of the pandemic influenza in 1918-1919 and case study
impressed me most.

Until the lecture, I did not quite well understand what the situation is worldwide in thepandemic of the Spanish flu. However, thorough the lecture I can compare the situation
between now and then.
Also the case study was quite interesting for me. The content of the case study included thefactors on the field of International politics, so I was able to discuss also based on such field.
On the other hand, for me Part 3 was a little bit difficult, because I could not catch up with thelecture due to the technical terms in the lecture.
⑥Thank you for the interesting lecture. I'm majoring the medicine, so before the history ofepidemics, the story of your career path was also stimulating.
In the group discussion, I could interact with students from other fields. It seems quite difficult
to reach an international agreement in every respect. The two disparities suggested areinteresting and still difficult for me to solve.
I was surprised to know that epidemics do not sustain in a small population and the advent ofagriculture was accompanied by the domestication causing zoonosis. This point of view was
new to me, and I keenly felt that the threat of infectious diseases is not to be moved from ourcivilization. In this emergency, some consider the change of our mindset toward the life anddeath. And in your lecture, I had an opportunity to think about our relationship with nature.
There should be many things to be altered in our lifestyles through this pandemic.
⑦Thank you so much for the wonderful lecture. I have learnt so much from the lecture. I learnt
not only to see from human’s perspective, but also to take virus perspective. Moreover, I am
stunned about the human microbiome, where there are about 100 trillion microorganisms
which weigh 2 kg. I know we have some microorganisms beneficial for us in our body, but I did
not expect them to be this much and this crucial. I have really learnt several new insights fromthis lecture.
⑧Thank you so much for the very interesting and quite informative lecture.
Especially, the idea of seeing things from the viral perspective was new to me and changed myview on virus in many ways. In ever day lives, when we talk about virus, disease caused by thatvirus always exists, so I only saw virus as the cause of our diseases. That is partly true, but mostof viruses do not make the host sick, and it is quite straight forward considering virus also
hope for its survival and making the host sick only makes its survival more difficult. After
realizing this, I just thought that seeing this COVID-19 situation from the beginning from theviral perspective might also tell us the whole
different story with the one we are already exposed to.
⑨Thank you so much for your lecture on previous pandemic and COVID-19. The lecture wasreally easy to follow and understand. It was interesting to learn more about how the formationof agriculture-based civilizations with increased populations contributed to the spread andlongevity of the virus in human society. Additionally, it was the first time for me to hear about
the pandemic from the virus's perspective so this was a big new discovery for me whichchanges my outlook on the existence of these viruses. One point that I wanted to hear more
about was a real-life example of how the challenges related to public health were overcome
both in antiviral drug case and vaccine case.

⑩Thank you very much for the lecture. It was a great opportunity to think about social
disparities about health issues. I really agree with that fear for the thought “Money can buylife”.
I learned that looking back to the past, pandemic is not a surprising event. Human beings
should prepare for the emergency as well as they do for natural disasters.
I also learned it important to keep the situation in perspective.
I asked a question about the way of prevention other than vaccination. The keyword“isolation” made me think about how to protect both human's health and rights.
Thank you again for the great opportunity.