On the Present and the Past of Pandemics
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a multitude of narratives saturated the print, audiovisual, and electronic media. Improvised, uninformed, apocalyptic and voluntarist approaches abounded. These notes – written during the pandemic and delivered in the conference series – address the proliferation of suc...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wolters Kluwer Health/LWW
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Chinese Medicine and Culture |
| Online Access: | http://journals.lww.com/10.1097/MC9.0000000000000073 |
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| _version_ | 1850184728614797312 |
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| author | Diego Armus |
| author_facet | Diego Armus |
| author_sort | Diego Armus |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | During the COVID-19 pandemic, a multitude of narratives saturated the print, audiovisual, and electronic media. Improvised, uninformed, apocalyptic and voluntarist approaches abounded. These notes – written during the pandemic and delivered in the conference series – address the proliferation of such discourses, emphasizing a series of issues. First, the widespread ignorance about the history of epidemics. Then, the inability to deal with the uncertainties that reign during pandemic times, as well as the announcements that this extraordinary health/sanitary event would produce a profound watershed in all walks of life and in all corners of the world. Finally, and against the general assertion that “one learns from the past to understand the present,” these notes seek to point out how the present can illuminate the study of the past – or, more personally, what I think I have learned as a historian in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2d1c7e7607514d6dbd1f6f0af08fa818 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2589-9627 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Wolters Kluwer Health/LWW |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Chinese Medicine and Culture |
| spelling | doaj-art-2d1c7e7607514d6dbd1f6f0af08fa8182025-08-20T02:16:56ZengWolters Kluwer Health/LWWChinese Medicine and Culture2589-96272023-09-016328028910.1097/MC9.0000000000000073202309000-00008On the Present and the Past of PandemicsDiego Armus01 Department of History, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore 19081, USADuring the COVID-19 pandemic, a multitude of narratives saturated the print, audiovisual, and electronic media. Improvised, uninformed, apocalyptic and voluntarist approaches abounded. These notes – written during the pandemic and delivered in the conference series – address the proliferation of such discourses, emphasizing a series of issues. First, the widespread ignorance about the history of epidemics. Then, the inability to deal with the uncertainties that reign during pandemic times, as well as the announcements that this extraordinary health/sanitary event would produce a profound watershed in all walks of life and in all corners of the world. Finally, and against the general assertion that “one learns from the past to understand the present,” these notes seek to point out how the present can illuminate the study of the past – or, more personally, what I think I have learned as a historian in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic.http://journals.lww.com/10.1097/MC9.0000000000000073 |
| spellingShingle | Diego Armus On the Present and the Past of Pandemics Chinese Medicine and Culture |
| title | On the Present and the Past of Pandemics |
| title_full | On the Present and the Past of Pandemics |
| title_fullStr | On the Present and the Past of Pandemics |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the Present and the Past of Pandemics |
| title_short | On the Present and the Past of Pandemics |
| title_sort | on the present and the past of pandemics |
| url | http://journals.lww.com/10.1097/MC9.0000000000000073 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT diegoarmus onthepresentandthepastofpandemics |