How obvious has been the here and now of nursing this year, as we have been enveloped by a historic pandemic for most of 2020, the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. So, while we have been resolutely required to practise social distancing, wear personal protective equipment, quarantine, live in lockdowns and border closures, we at least have an understanding of how the previous experience with Spanish influenza resonates with today. A century later, however, we have the added advantage of more knowledge, technology, and experience that has confirmed or changed the way contagion, and people affected by it, are managed. It is timely then that this special issue of Collegian on nursing and health care history, (available in ClinicalKey) has been published, for what it does is provide a focus on the role of history in shaping professional practices and identity, contributions to health care, as well as the advances in nursing history scholarship.