COVID-19
This special series, Thinking in a Pandemic, collects all our COVID-19 coverage in one place—the latest analysis from doctors and epidemiologists, philosophers and economists, legal scholars and historians, activists and citizens.
A collection of these essays appears in print in Thinking in a Pandemic and The Politics of Care.
Caring in Viral Times
Amid widespread indifference toward the most vulnerable, even small acts of kindness can make a difference.
How Americans Came to Distrust Science
For a century, critics of all political stripes have challenged the role of science in society. Repairing distrust today requires confronting those arguments head on.
Reading Camus in Time of Plague and Polarization
The French Algerian writer steadfastly defended democracy and humanity against dogmatic ideologies of all stripes.
Museums and Mourning in COVID-19
Museums rose to the challenge of responding to HIV/AIDS. They can do so again in the face of COVID-19.
Mourning in Tehran
On Ashura, Shi’a Muslims grieve the Prophet’s grandson. But with Iran crippled by COVID-19 and U.S. sanctions, it was also an occasion this year to mourn the country’s deaths from disease and despair.
From the Editor: Thinking in a Pandemic
COVID-19 is not just a public health crisis. It is also a crisis of public reason.
COVID-19 Provides All the More Reason to Tax the Rich
Tax policies like New Jersey’s new Millionaires Tax are essential—not only for an equitable recovery, but also for reining in pre-pandemic inequality.
How to Talk about COVID-19 in Africa
To ask why COVID-19 hasn’t been deadlier in Africa is to suggest that more Africans should be dying. We need better questions.
Political Economy After Neoliberalism
The government—not the market—is the only viable solution to some of our greatest challenges.
The Economic Case for a People’s Vaccine
Ensuring a COVID-19 vaccine is available to all makes both moral and economic sense.
The Angel of History
Pestilence and plague have often prompted waves of apocalyptic thinking, calling into question the steady march of progress in human history.
2020’s Existentialist Turn
The running thread through new appeals to existentialism is a sensitivity to human fragility.
How a Popular Medical Device Encodes Racial Bias
Pulse oximeters give biased results for people with darker skin. The consequences could be serious.
Beyond the Neoliberal University
Astra Taylor talks with Rutgers faculty union president Todd Wolfson about organizing academic communities in the age of COVID-19.
Steps to a Better COVID-19 Response
There’s no silver bullet, but local experiments and global experiences can help us control the pandemic.
Dismantling Medical Elitism
American medicine has long put professional prestige over the well-being of patients and physicians alike.
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