What is Sub-Optimal Health?
Lijiaozi Cheng discusses the concept of sub-optimal health and the Chinese government’s colour-based “health code” for containing COVID-19 A label for me A few years ago, I was doing my masters in Edinburgh and
Muzzles, parrots and lifejackets: the uneasy objectification of the face mask
As lockdown eases and face coverings become mandatory in certain situations, Harriet Barratt uses object relations theory to consider the emotional responses that the mask engenders.
Art in isolation: artistic responses to Covid-19
Early artistic responses to Covid-19 offer fascinating insights into key issues arising from the crisis, argue ART/DATA/HEALTH researchers Elodie Marandet, Harriet Barratt, and Aristea Fotopoulou.
‘The same day repeating itself’: COVID-19, Time, and Illness Perception
In this essay exploring parallels and distinctions between ‘COVID-19 time’ and ‘tuberculosis time’, Madeline Potter explores the resonances between the temporality of illness and that of lockdown, as well as reflecting on the impact of prolonged
Why Nightingale?
Why Nightingale? Ashleigh Blackwood, Leverhulme Research Fellow in English Literature at Northumbria University, suggests that women’s medical history might help us understand the inequalities revealed by the current health crisis.
Of Monsters & Men: A Tragedy in Three Parts
Today’s rhetoric around heroism signifies the failure of prevention and neglect of the public health, argues Guddi Singh, a paediatric doctor and PhD candidate in philosophy at King’s College London.
Historical lessons: pox and Covid-19
What lessons on Covid-19 can be learnt from the past? asks Rina Knoeff, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and the Aletta Jacobs School for Public Health, University of Groningen.
Wine Spirit
Stan Papoulias reflects on the bodily practices of disinfection during Covid-19 lockdown.
Infodemic
The threats to public health posed by fake news and conspiracy theories are being taken seriously by health bodies, politicians, and social media companies. Gill Partington takes a critical look at the term ‘infodemic’, and unpicks the relationship between information and disease.
Why Didn’t We See the Coronavirus Pandemic Coming?
A question of scale: Bettina Bildhauer argues that viruses are too small to be recognised in our anthropocentric habits of perceiving agency, but “new materialist” theories and pre-Enlightenment writing can help us challenge these