Before we ask how can we prevent future pandemics, we need to reframe our approach to infectious diseases.

In this context, the near-equivalence of the ‘mistrust’ for public health experts on the part of Hollywood anti-vaxxers with suspicions of marginalized communities will draw criticism from anthropologists and historians. The expanding literature on memory and history shows us that responses of “local” communities to top-down prescription cannot simply be classified as “ignorant” or “superstitious”. Shah is - rightly - quite sympathetic to the paradigmatic changes in science, but it is disappointing to see her not extending the same sympathy to the people of Haiti, Uttar Pradesh or northern Nigeria, who, because of their lived experiences with global health campaigns and memories of encounters with colonial health officials, may have grounded suspicions of top-down global health programmes. Indeed, even when governments in London and Paris eventually created their underground sewage systems, they did so not based on an acceptance of germ theory, but rather on existing concerns with miasma. For example, Shah does an expansive breakdown of Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts in science to explain why John Snow’s experiments on Cholera were not accepted by his contemporary scientific community. While the few social history analyses will peak the interests of historians, explanations of how marginalized communities in the global South experience and respond to epidemics are largely unnuanced.

In spite of these notable achievements, there are noticeable gaps.

Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, From Cholera to Coronaviruses and Beyond by Sonia Shah, HarperCollins, Rs 499

Pandemic sonia shah sparknotes