Viral Loads: Anthropologies of Urgency in the Time of COVID-19 (Embodying Inequalities: Perspectives from Medical Anthropology)

Drawing upon the empirical scholarship and research expertise of contributors from all settled continents and from diverse life settings and economies, Viral Loads illustrates how the COVID-19 pandemic, and responses to it, lay bare and load onto peoples lived realities in countries around the world. A crosscutting theme pertains to how social unevenness and gross economic disparities are shaping global and local responses to the pandemic, and illustrate the effects of both the virus and efforts to contain it in ways that amplify these inequalities. At the same time, the contributions highlight the nature of contemporary social life, including virtual communication, the nature of communities, neoliberalism and contemporary political economies, and the shifting nature of nation states and the role of government. Over half of the worlds population has been affected by restrictions of movement, with physical distancing requirements and self-isolation recommendations impacting profoundly on everyday life but also on the economy, resulting also, in turn, with dramatic shifts in the economy and in mass unemployment. By reflecting on how the pandemic has interrupted daily lives, state infrastructures and healthcare systems, the contributing authors in this volume mobilise anthropological theories and concepts to locate the pandemic in a highly connected and exceedingly unequal world. The book is ambitious in its scope spanning the entire globe and daring in its insistence that medical anthropology must be a part of the growing calls to build a new world. Praise for Viral Loads 'This collection of essays on the anthropology of an emergency is a captivating account of the first digital pandemic' Medical Anthropology Quarterly 'The scope of Viral Loads is admirable and informative...abounding in rich ethnographic insights, extended discussion of methodology is limited throughout. A significant strength of Viral Loads is that its authors, affiliated with institutions on 5 continents, draw their analyses from various parts of the global north and global a truly international effort... memorable chapters include Elisa J. Sobo and Elbieta Drkiewiczs theorectically rich discussion of conspiracy theories in Ireland, Poland, and the United States of America ... Marsland's expansive and compelling chapter and Lascos vision of interdisciplinary and interspecies convivium demonstrates that thick description can bring anthropologists into engagement with many others.' The Polyphony Viral Loads demonstrates anthropologys power of description, analysis and theory to capture a global tragedy as it unfolds. This impressive volume brings together anthropologists from around the world, who draw on their own deep knowledge to trace COVIDs impact on social, economic and political life. The authors offer compassionate accounts of the power of the virus to exploit and magnify social and structural vulnerabilities, while they present impassioned arguments of the imperative to address underlying inequalities, local and global, that continue to threaten our very existence. Melissa Parker, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine This impressive collection of well researched and preciously substantiated essays shows that evidence-based scholarship has not gone to sleep despite the Covid-19 menace and its imposition of physical and social distancing. If anything, the pandemic has introduced an urgency to social enquiry informed by improvisation and complementarity between virtual and face-to-face encounters. Francis B. Nyamnjoh, University of Cape Town In Viral Loads, the editors and contributors offer a penetrating analysis of how, worldwide, the COVID pandemic has exposed and exploited the racially, socioeconomically and globally uneven ways in which people live; it

Drawing upon the empirical scholarship and research expertise of contributors from all settled continents and from diverse life settings and economies, Viral Loads illustrates how the COVID-19 pandemic, and responses to it, lay bare and load onto people’s lived realities in countries around the world.
A crosscutting theme pertains to how social unevenness and gross economic disparities are shaping global and local responses to the pandemic, and illustrate the effects of both the virus and efforts to contain it in ways that amplify these inequalities. At the same time, the contributions highlight the nature of contemporary social life, including virtual communication, the nature of communities, neoliberalism and contemporary political economies, and the shifting nature of nation states and the role of government. Over half of the world’s population has been affected by restrictions of movement, with physical distancing requirements and self-isolation recommendations impacting profoundly on everyday life but also on the economy, resulting also, in turn, with dramatic shifts in the economy and in mass unemployment.
By reflecting on how the pandemic has interrupted daily lives, state infrastructures and healthcare systems, the contributing authors in this volume mobilise anthropological theories and concepts to locate the pandemic in a highly connected and exceedingly unequal world. The book is ambitious in its scope – spanning the entire globe – and daring in its insistence that medical anthropology must be a part of the growing calls to build a new world.

Drawing upon the empirical scholarship and research expertise of contributors from all settled continents and from diverse life settings and economies, Viral Loads illustrates how the COVID-19 pandemic, and responses to it, lay bare and load onto people?s lived realities in countries around the world.0A crosscutting theme pertains to how social unevenness and gross economic disparities are shaping global and local responses to the pandemic, and illustrate the effects of both the virus and efforts to contain it in ways that amplify these inequalities. At the same time, the contributions highlight the nature of contemporary social life, including virtual communication, the nature of communities, neoliberalism and contemporary political economies, and the shifting nature of nation states and the role of government. Over half of the world?s population has been affected by restrictions of movement, with physical distancing requirements and self-isolation recommendations impacting profoundly on everyday life but also on the economy, resulting also, in turn, with dramatic shifts in the economy and in mass unemployment.0By reflecting on how the pandemic has interrupted daily lives, state infrastructures and healthcare systems, the contributing authors in this volume mobilise anthropological theories and concepts to locate the pandemic in a highly connected and exceedingly unequal world. The book is ambitious in its scope ? spanning the entire globe ? and daring in its insistence that medical anthropology must be a part of the growing calls to build a new world Cover Half Title Series Editors Title Copyright Contents List of figures List of tables List of contributors Acknowledgements 1 Introduction Part I The power of the state 2 Care in the time of COVID-19 3 Militarising the pandemic 4 Rights, responsibilities andrevelations Part II Exclusion and blame 5 The 2020 Los Angeles uprisings 6 The biopolitics of COVID-19 in the UK 7 The shroud stealers 8 Unprecedented times? Romanian Roma and discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic 9 Turkey’s Diyanet and political Islam during the pandemic 10 Citizen vector Part III Unequal burdens 11 Pandemic policy responses and embodied realities among‘waste-pickers’ in India 12 The amplification effect 13 Vulnerabilities within and beyond the pandemic 14 ‘You are putting my health at risk’ 15 Scarcity and resilience in the slums of Dhaka city, Bangladesh Part IV The reach of care 16 Making do 17 Carescapes unsettled 18 Care within or out of reach 19 Pandemic times in a WhatsApp-ed nation 20 Purity’s dangers Part V Lessons for a future 21 Fracturing the pandemic 22 Living together in precarious times 23 COVID-19 in Italy Index Back Cover A Diagnosis Of Global Inequalities Exploited By Covid-19 And How We Might Evolve. The Covid-19 Pandemic Disrupted Some Lives More Than Others. While More Than Half The World's Population Experienced Physical Restrictions In The Wake Of The Virus, Viral Loads Reveals How The International Response Placed Disparate Burdens On Exploited Communities Across The Globe. Contributors From Six Continents Situate The Pandemic Within A Highly Connected Yet Exceedingly Unequal World Marked By Fragmented Communities, Austere Economies, And Unstable Governments. Ambitious In Its Scope, Viral Loads Insists That Medical Anthropology Must Be Part Of Any Future Efforts To Build A New Post-pandemic World. Viral Loads provides a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic from the field of medical anthropology