Gerry KEARNS, Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Ireland
A new disease requires a new conceptualisation in terms of nomenclature, its place within the classification of diseases, and an imaginary geography that places it within the spaces of economy, culture, and politics. The space of AIDS was structured around notions of contagion and providence. The visualisation of this was in terms of maps and diagrams. The space of Covid shares some of these features but with some significant differences. First, the contagion with Covid has been understood as more efficient than AIDS and the stigma has been qualified. The notion of bare life suits the treatment of contagion under AIDS and while it operates with respect to the elderly and the unvaccinated to some extent, this is much more open to widespread challenge under Covid than it was under AIDS. Second, the notion of providence has had a different geography under Covid and the vulnerability of poorly-regulated, autocratic societies is difficult or for dominant classes to accept. Finally, the visualisation of Covid via various dashboards has been rather geographically illiterate and the focus has mainly been on the comparison of graphs and with debates over the comparability of data.
Mots clés : AIDS|Covid|Epidemiology|Space|Metaphor
A103498GK