Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 29, 2025

Swabbing the Urban Environment - A Pipeline for Sampling and Detection of SARS-CoV-2 From Environmental Reservoirs
Published on: April 9, 2021
Pandemic Sociology
1The University of Edinburgh.
Abstract:
In 1990, the sociologist Phil Strong wrote about "epidemic psychology" as part of his research on the recent history of AIDS. Strong described vividly how epidemics of fear, of explanation and moralization, and of (proposed) action accompanied the epidemic of the AIDS virus per se. In this essay, I draw on these formulations to think through the current COVID-19 crisis, illustrating too a pandemic of inequality. In so doing, I provide a sketch of a pandemic sociology.
Related Concept Videos
Causality in Epidemiology
Steps in Outbreak Investigation
Principles of Disease Surveillance
Introduction to Epidemiology
Statistical Methods for Analyzing Epidemiological Data
Social Traps

