Howard Markel (born April 23, 1960) is an American physician and medical historian. Markel is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine at the
University of Michigan and Director of the University of Michigan's Center for the History of Medicine. He is also a professor of psychiatry, health management and policy, history, and pediatrics and communicable diseases. Markel writes extensively on major topics and figures in the history of medicine and
public health.
Early life and education
Markel was born in
Detroit and grew up in
Oak Park and
Southfield, Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree (''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'') in English from the University of Michigan in 1982 and earned his
M.D. degree (''cum laude'') from the
University of Michigan Medical School
Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Health System or UMHS before 2017) is the wholly owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Michigan Medicine includes the Universi ...
in 1986, before completing his internship, residency, and fellowship in
pediatrics
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...
at the
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the
Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1993. Markel then joined the
University of Michigan faculty as a Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of the
History of Medicine. A medical historian by training, Markel earned his
Ph.D. in the History of Medicine, Science and Technology from Johns Hopkins in 1994.
Publications
''Quarantine!''
Markel's writing focuses on major topics and figures in the history of medicine. A consistent theme in his work has been the historical relationship between
epidemics
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics of infectious d ...
,
social stigma and
immigration, and
public health. His book ''Quarantine!: East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892,'' focuses on the complex interaction between anti-immigrant prejudices in the United States and the ways such prejudices were mobilized during the
typhus and
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
outbreaks of 1892 in
New York City. Markel's argument about the tension between isolating disease and the potential for social
scapegoating acquired new urgency during the
2014 Ebola epidemic
The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia an ...
. "Ebola is jerking us back to the 19th century", he stated in ''The New York Times''.
''When Germs Travel''
''When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed'' expands the scope of ''Quarantine!'' by chronicling American epidemics during the two "great waves of immigration" that helped shape the 20th century. Markel argues that the association of immigrants with infectious disease is a key component of that history, and that their stigmatization during 20th century American epidemics "reveal
much about our predispositions for dealing with the perpetual threat of contagious disease".
''An Anatomy of Addiction''
Markel's ''An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine'' explores the lives and careers of Freud and Halsted through their relationship to cocaine. Having treated patients with various forms of
substance abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...
, Markel thought that sharing Freud and Halsted's struggles (both personal and scientific) with cocaine would raise awareness of the perniciousness of addiction while illuminating an important chapter in medical history. Discussing his work with
Science Friday's
Ira Flatow, Markel said "they were so compelling, and I thought using their lives and their struggles I could really put a human face on this terrible disease."
''The Kelloggs''
In August 2017, Pantheon Books published Markel's latest book, ''The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek''. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the book tells the story of the lives and times of the Kellogg Brothers of
Battle Creek,
Michigan.
''Literatim: Essays on the Intersections of Medicine and Culture''
In December 2019, Oxford University Press published ''Literatim: Essays at the Intersections of Medicine and Culture'', a collection of the Markel's essays on medicine, American culture, and how their intersections compose the interstitial matter of modern life.
''The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick and the Discovery of DNA’s Double Helix''
Markel's latest book, ''The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick and the Discovery of DNA’s Double Helix'', was published by W.W. Norton and Company in September 2021. ''Audiofile'' awarded the recorded book version with an October 2021 Earphone Award, ''The Washington Post'' named the version as one of the ten best audiobooks in 2021, and both ''Kirkus Reviews'' and National Public Radio placed it among its best books of the year list.
''The Milbank Quarterly''
From 2013 to 2017, Markel was the
editor-in-chief of the ''
Milbank Quarterly
The ''Milbank Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed healthcare journal covering health care policy. It was established in 1923 and is published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Milbank Memorial Fund, an endowed national foundation funded b ...
'', a
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
public health journal of population health and health policy.
Academic and popular periodicals
Markel has also contributed over 500 articles to scholarly publications and popular periodicals.
Government advice and media appearances
Influenza
From 2005 to 2006, Markel served as a historical consultant on pandemic influenza preparedness planning for the
United States Department of Defense. From 2006 to 2016 he served as principal historical consultant on pandemic preparedness for the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Markel was one of many who advised the federal government's response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic on the CDC Director's "Novel A/H1N1 Influenza Team B" real-time think tank. He and a team of researchers at the Center for the History of Medicine collaborated with the CDC to publish a digital encyclopedia of the
1918 influenza pandemic
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
, the largest available digital collection of materials pertaining to the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century and one of the largest collections of historical documents ever assembled on a single epidemic. The collaboration between Markel and the CDC continued with analysis and documentation of non-pharmaceutical interventions deployed during the
2009 H1N1 flu pandemic
The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, is the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Span ...
. "
Ebola
During the
2014 Ebola epidemic
The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia an ...
, Markel contributed his expertise on the history of epidemics and quarantines to public forums such as NPR's All Things Considered, the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
, CNN/Sanjay Gupta MD, ''PBS NewsHour'', and ''
The New Yorker''. He reminded readers in ''The New York Times'' that "we are a global village. Germs have always traveled. The problem now is they can travel with the speed of a jet plane." Markel additionally sought to enhance public understanding of the Ebola outbreak through op-eds for
Reuters Opinion and ''The New Republic''.
COVID-19
He is best known for working with Martin Cetron at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and having co-developed the evidence base of the concept of "flattening the curve," a means of social distancing that saved millions of lives around the globe during the first wave of COVID-19. This work was widely covered in newspapers and media around the world, including an "Annals of Medicine" article that appeared in
"The New Yorker" on August 6 2020. "<.
Markel wrote a piece in
''The New York Times'' criticizing the
Chinese government for their response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. He argued that the
Wuhan lockdown, which had completely shut all transportation in Wuhan and surrounding cities, was "too much too late", and that "Incremental restrictions, enforced steadily and transparently, tend to work far better than draconian measures."
Honors and awards
Markel's historical, medical, and health policy research has been recognized with numerous grants, honors and awards. In 1996 he was a
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar for his work on ''American Doctors and Foreign Patients; Health Care Delivery for Russian, Jewish, Mexican, and Chinese Immigrants to the United States between 1880 and 1995'', while his work titled ''U.S. Immigration Policy and the Public Health, 1880-1995'' received the
National Institutes of Health's James A. Shannon Director's Award for 1997–1999. He was named a Centennial Historian of the
City of New York in 1998 for his role in advising and planning the New York City 100: Greater New York Centennial Celebration. Markel was also an inaugural fellow at the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
's Center for Scholars and Writers from 1999 to 2000.
In 2003 Markel's ''Quarantine!''—by that time established as "a classic in the history of public health"—was recognized by the
American Public Health Association with The Arthur J. Viseltear Prize "for the outstanding book in the History of Public Health in America". In 2007, he received the Theodore Woodward Award from the American Clinical and Climatological Association for his presentation on "Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Employed By Major American Cities During the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic" and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy, also awarded on the basis of Markel's work on the 1918-1919 pandemic.
In 2008, in recognition of contributions made throughout his career to the fields of medicine and public health, Markel was elected to the
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. In 2011 he was appointed to the Institute of Medicine's Board of Population Health and Public Health Practices and was Chair of its Section on Social Sciences from 2013 to 2015. In 2015, the Institute of Medicine was renamed the National Academy of Medicine, of which Dr. Markel is an elected member.
In 2015 Markel was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
from the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...
for demonstrating "exceptional capacity for productive scholarship.
In 2016, he was inducted into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Fellows for distinguished work in his scholarly field.
In 2017, his book "The Kelloggs" was a Finalist in Biography for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
In 2019, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine awarded him with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for excellence and achievement through his personal and professional accomplishments.
In 2021, Markel was named a 2022 Visiting
Fellow of
Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.
Books
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References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Markel, Howard
Living people
American public health doctors
American medical historians
Physicians from Detroit
University of Michigan faculty
1960 births
People from Southfield, Michigan
People from Oak Park, Michigan
University of Michigan Medical School alumni
Members of the National Academy of Medicine
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
Historians from Michigan