The COVID Pandemic: Essays, Book Reviews, and Poems

203 Pages·2022·5.346 MB·English

by  Therese Jones, Kathleen Pachucki

Therese Jones
Kathleen Pachucki   Editors
The COVID
Pandemic:
Essays, Book
Reviews, and
Poems
The COVID Pandemic: Essays, Book Reviews,
and Poems
Therese Jones Kathleen Pachucki
(cid:129)
Editors
The COVID Pandemic:
Essays, Book Reviews,
and Poems
Previously published in Journal of Medical Humanities,
Volume 42, Issue 1, March 2021
123
Editors
Therese Jones Kathleen Pachucki
Anschutz Medical Campus HealthSciences Center
University of Colorado University of Utah
Aurora,CO, USA Salt Lake City,UT,USA
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Chapters“COVID-19,Contagion,andVaccineOptimism”,“VirileInfertileMen,andOtherRepresen-
tationsofIn/FertileHegemonicMasculinityinFictionTelevisionSeries”,“MovementasMethod:Some
ExistentialandEpistemologicalReflectionsonDanceintheHealthHumanities”and“TheEthicofRes-
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Contents
The COVID Pandemic: Selected Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Therese Jones and Kathleen Pachucki
Planetary Health Humanities—Responding to COVID Times . . . . . . . . 3
Bradley Lewis
Placing the Blame: What If “They” REALLY Are Responsible?. . . . . . 17
Zhou Xun and Sander Gilman
COVID19, Contagion, and Vaccine Optimism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Kelly McGuire
Sinophobic Epidemics in America: Historical Discontinuity
in Disease-related Yellow Peril Imaginaries of the Past
and Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Dennis Zhang
Letting Go of Familiar Narratives as Tragic Optimism
in the Era of COVID-19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Anna Gotlib
Masks in Medicine: Metaphors and Morality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Lindsey Grubbs and Gail Geller
Reading for Pandemic: Viral Modernism by Elizabeth Outka,
New York: Columbia University Press, 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Rachel Conrad Bracken
The Health Humanities and Camus’s the Plague, Edited
by Woods Nash, Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2019 . . . . . . . 115
Steven Wilson
Love in the Time of COVID. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Carl V. Tyler
v
vi Contents
Inflorescence of Mistrust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Brent R. Carr
“A Sick Child is Always the Mother’s Property”: The Jane
Austen Pediatric Trauma Management Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Perri Klass
Beside Oneself with Rage: The Doubled Self as Metaphor
in a Narrative of Brain Injury with Emotional Dysregulation . . . . . . . . 131
Jorie Hofstra
Virile Infertile Men, and Other Representations of In/Fertile
Hegemonic Masculinity in Fiction Television Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Marjolein Lotte de Boer
Movement as Method: Some Existential and Epistemological
Reflections on Dance in the Health Humanities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Aimie Purser
The Ethic of Responsibility: Max Weber’s Verstehen and Shared
Decision-Making in Patient-Centred Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Ariane Hanemaayer
When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment
by Ryan T Anderson New York: Encounter Books, 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Armand H. Matheny Antommaria
ThePoeticsandPoliticsofAlzheimer’sDiseaseLife-WritingbyMartina
Zimmermann, London, UK: Palgrave McMillan, 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Kathryn Lafferty Danner
The Art of Death by Edwidge Dandicat, Minnesota: Graywolf Press,
2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Belinda Waller-Peterson
Journal of Medical Humanities (2021) 42:1
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-021-09683-5
The COVID Pandemic: Selected Work
Therese Jones1 · Kathleen Pachucki2
P ublished online: 22 February 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature 2021
FROM THE EDITOR
Similar to many academic journals, we have received a number of submissions over
the past months that directly address the current pandemic. In the early months, we saw an
unprecedented number of poetry submissions from physicians who seemed to be turning to
verse as a way to memorialize what was happening, to find ways of healing from the dev-
astating number of dying patients, and to capture the exhaustion and anxiety of caring for
others day after day without respite.
For this issue, we have selected several critical essays, book reviews, and poems from
all of those submissions to mark a sad but hopeful first anniversary of COVID. To our col-
leagues who have been caring for patients, teaching and mentoring students, and contrib-
uting to our understanding and awareness of this crisis, thank you for your resilience and
your compassion.
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
*
Therese Jones
[email protected]
1 Arts and Humanities in Healthcare Program, Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University
of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, 13001 E. 17th Pl, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
2 Salt Lake City, USA
1 3 1 Reprinted from the journal
Journal of Medical Humanities (2021) 42:3–16
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-020-09670-2
Planetary Health Humanities—Responding
to COVID Times
BradleyLewis1
Accepted:15October2020/Published online: 28 October 2020
#SpringerScience+BusinessMedia,LLC,partofSpringerNature2020
Abstract
The coronavirus pandemic has shattered our world with increased morbidity, mortality,
andpersonal/socialsufferings.Atthetimeofthiswriting,weareinabiomedicalracefor
protectiveequipment,viraltesting,andvaccinecreationinanefforttorespondtoCOVID
threats.Butwhatistheroleofhealthhumanitiesintheseviraltimes?Thisarticleworks
though interdisciplinary connections between health humanities, the planetary health
movement, and environmental humanitiestoconceptualize the emergence of“planetary
health humanities.” The goal of this affinity linkage is to re-story health humanities
toward promotion of planetary health and community well-being. Wellbeing is critical
because themaindriverofenvironmentaldestructionanddecreasingplanetaryhealthis
comingfromnon-sustainabledefinitionsofwellbeing.Weneedtheartsandhumanitiesto
helpreimaginethepossibilityofasustainablecommunitywellbeing.Forhealthhuman-
ities,abasicroleandnarrativeidentitystartstoemerge—weshouldbecomeaplanetary
health(andwell-being)humanities.
Keywords Healthhumanities.Corona-virus.Planetaryhealth.Environmentalhumanities.Arts
forhealth.Well-being.Sustainabledevelopment
Emerginginfectiousdiseases(EIDs)areasignificantburdenonglobaleconomiesand
public health. Their emergence is thought to be driven largely by socio-economic,
environmental and ecological factors… EID events are dominated by zoonoses
(60.3%ofEIDs):themajorityofthese(71.8%)originateinwildlife…andareincreasing
significantlyovertime.
Jonesetal.2008
* BradleyLewis
[email protected]
1 GallatinSchoolofIndividualizedStudy,NewYorkUniversity,1WashingtonSq.#609,NewYork,
NY10003,USA
1 3 3 Reprinted from the journal
B. Lewis
Nearlyall ofthemost importanthumanpathogensareeitherzoonoticororiginatedas
zoonosesbeforeadaptingtohumanbeings…Ecologicalchangeshaveledtoincreased
ratesofemergingandre-emergingdiseases.
Whitmeeetal.2015
Introduction
This article, written in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, considers some of
meanings of coronavirus for health humanities. The two quotes above tell us that the virus
is not a surprise. The medical literature knew as far back as 2008 that planet-wide socio-
economic, environmental, and ecological pressures were creating conditions for Emerging
InfectiousDiseases(EIDs)arisingfromnovelzoonoticpathogenslikeCOVID-19.Asaresult,
by2015,therewasalreadyamainstreamacademicandmedicalmovementforashifttowards
PlanetaryHealth.TheLancetCommissiononPlanetaryHealthreportexplainstheneedforthe
movement: “by unsustainably exploiting nature’s resources, human civilization… now risks
substantialhealtheffectsfromthedegradationofnature’slifesupportsystems”(Whitmeeetal.
2015, 1973). The 2020 pandemic is the latest and so far most widespread example of these
emerginghealtheffects.
Inthiscontext,COVID-19shouldbeinterpretednotasanisolatedeventora crisisfrom
nowhere. Rather, it should be read as a wake-up call toward more sustainable living. The
implicationsofthisinterpretationcutsacrossbothnationalanddisciplinaryboundaries.Each
discipline, like each country and each region, must take seriously the meanings of COVID
times.Forhealthhumanities,thebasicdirectionofthatmeaningisclear—weshouldexpand
ourfocustowardpromotingplanetaryhealthandwell-being.Weshouldbecomeaplanetary
healthhumanities.
Planetaryhealth
Developingplanetaryhealthhumanitiesstartswithworkingthroughtheemergingdiscursive
andnarrativeframingsofa“planetaryhealth”movement.The2015RockefellerFoundation—
LancetCommissiononPlanetaryHealth(CPH)isagoodplacetobegin.Thecommissionwas
composedofadiversegroupofscientific contributorsfrommedicine,ecology,biodiversity,
andenvironmentalhealth(HortonandLo2015).TheRockefellerFoundation,initsroleand
self-identityasapioneerinthefieldofpublichealth,initiatedandfundedthecommissionin
collaboration with leading medical journal, the Lancet. The Foundation saw their efforts to
createthefieldof“planetaryhealth”asanextensionoftheirpublichealthwork,orasJudith
Rodin,thenpresidentoftheFoundationcalledit:“publichealth-2.0”(2015,myitalics).Their
motivationwasclearlystated:“Theconsensusinthescientificcommunityisstark:ourplanet,
and its ability to sustain human life, is in imminent danger.” This danger, Rodin explains,
comes from theconsequences ofonehundred years of pursuingprogress througheconomic
anddevelopmentpracticesthathave“createdunintendedconsequencesforournaturalworld.”
The result is changing patterns of known diseases and “increasing the likelihood that new
unknowndiseaseswillemerge”(2015).
The CPHarticulatesindetail how contemporaryearth systemsaredeteriorating and how
thisdeteriorationisdamaginghumanhealthandwell-being—thebadnewsisthatEIDslike
Reprinted from the journal 4 1 3
Planetary Health Humanities—Responding to COVID Times
COVID-19areonlyoneofahostofdamagingconsequences.Inthissituationofinterlinking
environmentalandhumanhealthdeclines,theCPHprovidesadefinitionofplanetaryhealth:
the achievement of the highest attainable standard of health, wellbeing, and equity
worldwide through judicious attention to the human systems—political, economic,
and social—that shape the future of humanity and the Earth’s natural systems that
define the safe environmental limits within which humanity can flourish. Put simply,
planetaryhealthisthehealthofhumancivilizationandthestateofthenaturalsystems
onwhichitdepends.(Whitmeeetal.2015,1978)
This definition is contained in a box—“the concept of planetary health”—which elaborates
keyaspectsofthisdefinition.First,theCPHexplicitlyusestheWHOdefinitionofhealth:“a
stateofcompletephysical,mental,andsocialwellbeingandnotmerelytheabsenceofdisease
or infirmity” (1978). CPH, in defining Planetary Health, therefore joins with the WHO
definition to give healthcare research, education, and practice the role of health promotion
conceptualized as biopsychosocial (BPS) phenomena. The CPH underscores its BPS, or
systems, focus by locating planetary health as part of an “ecological public health model”
whichincludes“material,biological,social,andcultural”variablesinteractinginthecomplex
and non-linear “dynamics ofnatural systems” (1978).Finally,theCPH “makes thecase for
widening the responsibility for health across disciplines and sectors beyond the traditional
confinesofthehealthsector”(1978).ThislastpointisunderscoredbytheCPHawarenessthat
planetaryhealthisaninterdisciplinaryall handsondeckprioritywhicharisesinthiscritical
moment to “address the challenges of how best toprotect andpromote human healthin the
Anthropoceneepoch”(1978).
Critically,theCPHalsoincludesasectiononthethreemain“drivers”ofenvironmentaland
health deterioration: resource consumption, over-population, and technology (1983). Of the
three drivers,resource consumption, comingprimarily from“increasing absolutewealth,” is
“themainfactorforincreasedabsoluteenvironmentalimpact”(1983,italicsadded).Increas-
ingconsumptionfromwealthynationsiscreating a “profoundly unequal, resource intensive
globaleconomy”thatis“unprecedentedinhumanhistory”(1983).Theimplicationisclear:“a
priorityforresearchandinnovationistoachieveacceleratedprogressinhumandevelopment
byuseofmuchloweramountsofresourcesandenergyfromnon-renewablesourcesthanare
usedatpresent”(1983,italicsadded).
TheCPHseesreasonforhopeintheseseeminglyintractableproblemsinthezeitgeistofthe
simultaneousemergenceofthelandmarkUNSustainableDevelopmentGoals.Adoptedbyall
UN Member States in 2015 (the same year as the CPH), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
DevelopmentcreatesasharedblueprintwiththeperspectivesofCPHthatcombinehumanand
planetaryprosperity(UnitedNations2015).AstheUNexplains:
Atitsheartarethe17SustainableDevelopmentGoals(SDGs),whichareanurgentcall
for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They
recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with
strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic
growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and
forests.(UnitedNations2020)
TheSDGshavebecomethekeyframeworkfororganizingtheUN’sinternationalagendaonthe
socialandenvironmentaldeterminantsofhealthandwellbeing.Liketheconceptofplanetaryhealth,
the SDG’s show the interdependence of health and well-being on factors much larger than the
1 3 5 Reprinted from the journal