After almost two years – and an extraordinary global hiatus whose impact is still unclear – it is inevitable that many will write about the covid – 19 for the next few decades .
Now that we enter a long period of reflection, scholars of the arts and humanities have much to offer, especially once the intensity of scientific and medical coverage has begun to diminish.
At first, when many of us were confined and worried about how we were going to get out of the pandemic, the only chapter in any book on covid that any of us would What I wanted to read was the one about the vaccine.
Would there be one and would it work? But the technical description of this precious medical intervention in the next publications will be concise and brief. The fuller story is elsewhere.
What really matters
The medical history of plagues is fascinating, but rarely the critical question. We do not know with certainty what the Athenian epidemic of the 5th century BCE was, nor the devastating one of the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE
The plague of the 6th to 8th centuries CE in the Roman Empire is the subject of discussion, but it was probably several different infections. We know how the Black Death spread, but that’s not the most interesting.
The most interesting is how people react to epidemics and how writers describe their reactions .
The story of the Greek historian and general Thucydides (460 – 400 aec ) on how Athenians responded to the virulent plague of the 5th century directly or indirectly influenced the way many later historians described them.
It set the tone for a narrative of the symptoms along with the impact social.
Athens and the plague
Athens was in the second year of what will become a in more than 20 years of conflict with rival Sparta.
The plague spread quickly and killed quickly: symptoms began with fever and spread throughout the body.
Some Athenians were diligent in caring for others, which normally led to their death, but many simply gave up, or ignored family and the dead, or pursued pleasures in the time they had left.
It is debatable to what extent the plague changed Athens: it did not stop the war or affect its prosperity.
What if he says Thucydides is that ue the loss of his great statesman Pericles (495 – 429 aec) because of the plague altered the nature of his leadership and eliminated some of its moderating traits.
It is implicit that the Athenians may have abandoned their traditional piety and respect for social norms.
This was the generation that would produce the most radical questioning of the role and nature of the gods , of what we know about the world and how We must live.
But it also led to a renewed sense of militarism and eventual catastrophe: Athens’ defeat to Sparta and the loss of its empire.
Pandemics and their impact
The temptation is to say that pandemics change everything.
The Byzantine historian Procopius (500 – 675 ec), which survived the outbreak of the plague in the 6th century, was aware of this.
Everyone became very religious for a while, but then, as soon as they felt free, they returned to their old behavior.
The plague was an obvious symbol of the decay of the system , but people adapt.
Was the Byzantine world so fatally weakened by the plague and its resurgence that it was unable to withstand the onslaught of the Arabs in the 7th century?
This may be partly true, but the plague significantly preceded the Arab conquest, there was as much continuity as visible alteration in their culture and in the life of the cities. Furthermore, the Arab world had its own plagues. The story is not that simple.
And what about our pandemic? As tempting as it may be to predict a total turnaround in social behavior, lessons from the past suggest that it is unlikely.
strong ties of society have survived well.
Perhaps the worst consequence is the setback in the progress of developing countries.
That and the long-term repercussions on mental health and education around the world are exceptionally difficult to gauge, although this will be the most studied pandemic in our history . And it will be the scholars of the arts and humanities and social scientists who do much of this incisive work, and they are already doing it.
The Science of the Pandemic
So what does history tell us that would be useful? That there is to investigate more and deepen the knowledge .
That is why the history of the covid will not only be the description of the virus and the vaccine, or the mystery of whether it came from a bat or from a laboratory.
It will the very complex history of how this disease intersected with our social behavior and how we decided to respond as individuals and families, communities and politicians, nations and world organizations.
What the best historians since Thucydides have told us is that the biology of disease is inseparable from the social construction of disease and health.
And we also see that humans are very bad when it comes to thinking about the consequences.
One of the most interesting potential consequences of this pandemic is the r relationship between politics and science.
The Athenian plague may have prompted thinkers to be more radical in questioning traditional views of life, death, and the role of the gods.
And the Black Death is often viewed as a game changer in terms of religion and philosophy, and one that fostered changes in medical ethics and improvements in social care.
It even shifted the balance on the value of work, but we have yet to see whether our pandemic has made lasting inroads into office or virtual work patterns.
This latest pandemic has shown the best and most essential of science , but has also placed it uncomfortably at the center of political decision-making.
Along with the much more dangerous climate crisis, the pandemic has encouraged politicians to affirm that they “follow science.”
But science does not speak with a single voice, rarely offers easy or unequivocal answers and resists the short term .
How the conversation between politics and science develops, and what its consequences are, could be one of the surprises of this strange moment.
In the long term, the Understanding the repercussions of this virus – and the broader cultural, social and economic challenges in which it is embedded – will require us to deploy a more generous and holistic view of science.
Only in this way can we write the story of this pandemic that its disruptive force demands.
Christopher Smith is executive director of the Research Council ci on of Arts and Humanities, School of Classics, University of St. Andrews, UK.
This art The article was published on The Conversation and reproduced here under the Creative Commons license. Click here to read the original version.
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