Title:
The Danger of a Single Threat
Author:
Peter Redfield
Published:
Society for Cultural Anthropology (culanth.org), Fieldsights, 22 May 2020
https://culanth.org/fieldsights/the-danger-of-a-single-threat
From the article:
This pandemic moment has certainly inspired an outbreak of crisis commentary. Between orders to shelter in place and anxious demands for information, it comes as no surprise that people traffic in frenetic updates and insights, rumors and theories. Facing a potential threat, who would not want a recipe for safety? At the same time, fragmentary data and the evolving storyline of a novel pathogen undermine quick conclusions. Beneath expert pronouncements, charts and graphs, things remain partly predictable and yet discomfortingly uncertain. Prescriptions for action and potential critique abound, not always in sync.