Introduction: Pandemics, publics, and politics-staging responses to public health crises

Abstract

Pandemics are potentially very destructive phenomena, and for that reason, they both fascinate and frighten us. But because they might also turn out to be relatively mild, pandemics often become sites of contestation and conflict. Perhaps the most important characteristic of these diseases, then, is the fact that they are shot through with uncertainty. While they are only potentially destructive, they necessarily involve a great degree of uncertainty-and this is what makes the task of staging a collective response to pandemics such a challenge. In this introduction, we argue that a broader set of disciplines need to be engaged in the study of pandemics and other public health crises in order to prepare society for future pandemic events.