"Flu pandemics recur reliably but unpredictably every decade or so....Let’s talk about the 1957 pandemic."

The writer, Nicholas Christakis hangs his hat at Yale. He's Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, la-di-comfy-endowed-chair-da. 

Has an M.D, a Masters of Public Health and a PhD in sociology.
Looks overqualified.

He holds appointments in Yale's Departments of Sociology; Medicine; Biomedical Engineering; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology;  and the School of Management.  
And he's most famous for the great Halloween costume brouhaha of 2015.

Pandemics result from emergence of viral strains that are novel, often from genetic recombination in animal reservoirs. The 1957 pandemic was due to influenza A (H2N2). https://t.co/RnbS62naSA "Serological archeology" suggests it resembled 1889 strain. https://t.co/bXoRjUeTwv 2/

— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) March 14, 2020

Thread