Historicizing COVID-19: Reflections on Epidemics and the Impacts on Human Population
New diseases with epidemic potential have emerged throughout history, but the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), and its eventual scale, came as a shock to many. As a pandemic in motion, COVID-19 has emerged as a critical and contemporary health issue that has shaped, and will continue to shape, the course of human existence, posing a grave challenge to public health, generating stress on the world economy, and changing day-to-day life across the globe. This article collection looks at the place and value of history and historical analogy in the context of the unfolding pandemic. Contributions draw on the concept of usable past to detail how COVID-19 has affected various facets of human lives, including language, social media, and food, probing how our current times may provide significant insight as an historical touchpoint for the future. The collection also includes empirical research that highlights human actions, resilience, and commitment to survival and recovery over time.
Edited by
Samuel Adu-Gyamfi(Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana)