The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of DangerIn 2005, American experts sent out urgent warnings throughout the country: a devastating flu pandemic was fast approaching. Influenza was a serious disease, not a seasonal nuisance; it could kill millions of people. If urgent steps were not taken immediately, the pandemic could shut down the economy and “trigger a reaction that will change the world overnight.” The Pandemic Perhaps explores how American experts framed a catastrophe that never occurred. The urgent threat that was presented to the public produced a profound sense of insecurity, prompting a systematic effort to prepare the population for the coming plague. But when that plague did not arrive, the race to avert it carried on. Paradoxically, it was the absence of disease that made preparedness a permanent project. The Pandemic Perhaps tells the story of what happened when nothing really happened. Drawing on fieldwork among scientists and public health professionals in New York City, the book is an investigation of how actors and institutions produced a scene of extreme expectation through the circulation of dramatic plague visions. It argues that experts deployed these visions to draw attention to the possibility of a pandemic, frame the disease as a catastrophic event, and make it meaningful to the nation. Today, when we talk about pandemic influenza, we must always say “perhaps.” What, then, does it mean to engage a disease in the modality of the maybe? |
Contents
The avian flu death threat | 4 |
The bird flu bomb | 6 |
The great pandemic | 9 |
The right prescription | 13 |
The national strategy | 17 |
The monster at our door | 25 |
Can we beat influenza | 41 |
A ferret in the cage | 47 |
Casualties of Contagion | 82 |
Its not Au usual | 85 |
The harvesting | 92 |
The serological test | 94 |
Experiments of Concern | 104 |
The laboratory freezer | 140 |
Today is the day before | 150 |
Note on the Cover Image | 185 |
The answer to a prayer | 48 |
Flu to the starboard | 61 |
The flu shot spectacle | 77 |
Other editions - View all
The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of Danger Carlo Caduff Limited preview - 2015 |
The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of Danger Carlo Caduff Limited preview - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
ACIP American Andrewes animal Anthropology avian Avian Flu avian influenza biological Biopolitics biosafety biosafety level Biosecurity Bioterrorism body catastrophic cause cells CHAPTER circulation clinical coming plague concept concern contain context culture demic Ebola enza epidemic event experimental ferrets fertilized chicken eggs fluenza future genetic global happen health officials human Hurricane Katrina Ibid immunization important increasingly infection infectious disease influ Influenza Pandemic influenza research influenza virus intervention Journal Kilbourne laboratory Laidlaw Medical Medicine microbe farmers microbiological microbiologists mutant strains mutated National nature observed organisms Osterholm outbreak Palese Pandemic Flu pandemic influenza pandemic prophecy Pandemic Severity Index pathogenic agent patients Patrick Playfair pharmaceutical political population possible potential present produce prophetic public engagement meetings public health professionals response reverse genetics risk samples Science scientific scientists Shope subtype swine flu swine flu virus symptoms test tube threat tion University Press vaccine viruses York