COVID-19
Briefings
Quarantine in the Context of COVID-19
Key considerations relating to the design and impact of measures that restrict human movement patterns.
Briefings
Shame and Complicity in the Reactions to the Coronavirus
The death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang on 7 February 2020 was a turning point in public reactions to the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The doctor had warned about the new virus, but was silenced and punished, because…
Briefings
Sentinels and Whistleblowers: Lessons from Wuhan
When the media asked me how the Chinese government was handling the crisis of COVID-19, I offered them a distinction which comes from the social sciences: the Wuhan authorities acted well as sentinels but failed to act as whistleblowers. Indeed,…
Briefings
Echoes of Ebola: Social and Political Warnings for the COVID-19 Response in African Settings
Recent years have seen major global investment in epidemic preparedness and response. The World Health Organization’s new guidelines for health emergency preparedness (WHO 2017), extending the ambit of the 2005 International Health Regulations, have accompanied growing commitments to centralised planning,…
Briefings
Novelty and Uncertainty: Social Science Contributions to a Response to COVID-19
The scenario of novel pathogen emergence engenders uncertainty of various kinds. The very notions of the ‘novel’ and ‘emergent’ in scientific understandings reference uncertainties that can in turn seep into popular imaginaries – of viral mutation and flux, and the…
Briefings
Social Dimensions of the novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Outbreak and Response: Meeting Report
Report from a roundtable meeting at the Wellcome Trust, London, 3rd February 2020.
