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.
Recessions often improve population health, but COVID-19 may be different
Mortality rates typically fall during economic downturns. But the unprecedented features of the COVID-19 shutdown suggest that trend might not hold this time.
How Science Shapes Policy in the COVID-19 Crisis
Pandemic response is not a simple matter of listening to the science, as scientists themselves disagree. In this ongoing series, leading researchers debate how to transform knowledge into action.
No, Autocracies Aren’t Better for Public Health
Some have praised China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but its suppression of information helped cause the problem in the first place.
Mercy Hours
On being awestruck by literature, and the necessary pleasures of intimacy—near and remote—during quarantine.
Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability
COVID-19 is having a disproportionate effect among vulnerable populations. As in all U.S. disasters, there will be a tale to tell of who mattered and who was sacrificed.
Work After Quarantine
COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of our labor markets just as much as the fragility of our public health and welfare systems. As we take the economy out of its induced coma, we should ask what kinds of jobs we want and need.
New Pathogen, Old Politics
We should be wary of simplistic uses of history, but we can learn from the logic of social responses.
Eight Needed Steps in the Fight Against COVID-19
In addition to masks and ventilators, doctors demand a fundamental transformation of our health care system.
Love One Another or Die
During the AIDS crisis, different contingents of the LGBTQ movement set aside their differences to prioritize mutual care.
Who’s in Charge?
It’s easy to interpret the disorder of our COVID-19 response through the lens of unpreparedness or partisanship. But that misses the complex legal structure of emergency governance.
Fighting for Public Health
The United States has never understood the connection between community and personal well-being.
Meet the Bailout’s New Slush Fund
The battle over the bailout—set to be delivered through a once-obscure Treasury Department mechanism called the Exchange Stabilization Fund—has only just begun.
Should There Be a COVID-19 Rent Strike?
While the government and some banks have announced mortgage moratoriums, they have not insisted that rent relief be passed on to tenants. Many renters don’t know what they will do come April 1, let alone May 1.
End Shareholder Primacy Once and For All
We face an economic crisis not least because the rules of corporate governance slight workers and preclude economic resiliency. We must reform them now.
American Racism in the Time of Plagues
The United States has a long history of blaming Asian immigrants for outbreaks of disease. Every time, democracy and public health suffer.
Why the Stimulus Package is Not Enough
–and other essays on COVID-19 from our new “Thinking in a Pandemic” project.
Markets v. Lives
Claims that the cure is worse than the disease rely on a false tradeoff between human needs and the economy.
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