The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of Danger
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21st century pandemics
A01=Carlo Caduff
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american government
american health crisis
anthropology
Author_Carlo Caduff
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catastrophic event
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change the world
coming plague
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devastating flu pandemic
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forensic medicine
government and government
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hopeful stories
human condition
influenza
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medical
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modality of maybe
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new york city
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pandemic
pandemic preparedness
plague visions
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public health professionals
realistic
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Product details
- ISBN 9780520284081
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 11 Aug 2015
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: United States
- Language: English
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In 2005, American experts sent out urgent warnings throughout the country: a devastating flu pandemic was fast approaching. Influenza was a serious disease, not a seasonal nuisance; it could kill millions of people. If urgent steps were not taken immediately, the pandemic could shut down the economy and trigger a reaction that will change the world overnight. The Pandemic Perhaps explores how American experts framed a catastrophe that never occurred. The urgent threat that was presented to the public produced a profound sense of insecurity, prompting a systematic effort to prepare the population for the coming plague. But when that plague did not arrive, the race to avert it carried on. Paradoxically, it was the absence of disease that made preparedness a permanent project. The Pandemic Perhaps tells the story of what happened when nothing really happened. Drawing on fieldwork among scientists and public health professionals in New York City, the book is an investigation of how actors and institutions produced a scene of extreme expectation through the circulation of dramatic plague visions. It argues that experts deployed these visions to draw attention to the possibility of a pandemic, frame the disease as a catastrophic event, and make it meaningful to the nation. Today, when we talk about pandemic influenza, we must always say perhaps. What, then, does it mean to engage a disease in the modality of the maybe?
Carlo Caduff is Lecturer in the Department of Social Science, Health, and Medicine at King's College London.
