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As some of you know I spent much of 2019 working with a Wellcome Trust project called Contagious Cities https://wellcome.ac.uk/what-we-do/our-work/contagious-cities As you can imagine I've been thinking about whether to share some of what I learned. Here are some snippets that I hope are constructive...
The nature of epidemics/pandemics renders them hard to comprehend. This comes through in Laura Spinney’s great book Pale Rider https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1110253/pale-rider/9781784702403.html (and she struggles to tell a tidy story)
Loads of people go around the world oblivious to the hazards around and inside them. Habit and folk wisdom shape behaviour. This is normal but can be dangerous. An infantilising consumer culture makes it worse.
Health policy needs to be built around how humans really behave, not how you would wish them to behave. Other people are not like you. A sophisticated cultural understanding is essential.
Fear and stigma are just as contagious as any pathogen, and even more dangerous. The metaphors and images we use to describe disease can exacerbate or defuse these forces. [note: this was a main theme of the project and what is still on my mind today]
Death and disease are a feature of every human life. Freedom from disease is wonderful. But freedom from the risk of the disease is misery. It means no contact; no culture. [note: this was the main secondary theme of the project]
There are no easy policy solutions. (eg extended distancing measures that tank the economy may lead to poverty that will soon kill more people than a shortage of respirators in 2020). This is very hard to calculate and even harder to communicate.
I’ll stop there. I’ve seen too much unedifying conspiratorial bs on here from people who should know better. I want to be humble and generous to qualified experts and those in charge who are in a tight spot. Everyone on the front line deserves our respect and support.
I’m writing this from self-isolation (decreasingly symptomatic since Thur). It’s a drag but completely bearable. I have bedside friends old and new (see pic). At this stage I’m more anxious about what our behaviour is doing to the economy than what this virus is doing to my body.
If anyone wants to talk about this or ask any questions I’m available since work has almost entirely evaporated. Here’s the link to that amazing Wellcome project again: https://wellcome.ac.uk/what-we-do/our-work/contagious-cities Explore the art and videos on there. Stay calm. Stay well.
Okay someone on the Wellcome side just sent me a bunch of articles that have spun out of this project - I'll share them on this thread tomorrow
