Description
Book SynopsisIn 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. This book explores how American experts framed a catastrophe that never occurred.
Trade Review"Caduff's detailed analysis of the sites, practices, and poetics of scientific authority and claim-making, in and through both uncertainties and indeterminacy, is uniquely insightful and compelling. His attentive, detailed, and discerning ethnography performs its own variety of dramatic work-the text itself is a delightful and gripping read. It is both an erudite collection of insights about that which goes into and makes up the contemporary world of 'scientific prophecy.' Caduff offers a surplus of generative ideas and his own brand of creativity and complexity in thinking through the politics of pandemic preparedness." Raad Fadaak, McGill University "In Carlo Caduff's brilliant ethnography The Pandemic Perhaps, we enter a world of delayed apocalypse. The HnNn mutation of the influenza virus is on the radar of the WHO; scientists prognosticate the next pandemic; preparedness measures are put in place by public health organizations; a flu vaccine is ready to be shipped by the pharmaceutical company. But, once more suspended, the pandemic does not happen today. To think about the intersection of scientific uncertainty and its relationship to the millennial public health message Caduff's The Pandemic Perhaps is just the right companion." Karen Jent, University of Cambridge "It is the strange serendipity of maternity leave that finds me reading 10:04 and The Pandemic Perhaps at odd hours and in tandem; two books for which hurricanes-or, more specifically, the preparations they precipitate-relay the condensed temporality of the coming catastrophe, a dovetailing of past perils and precarious futures for which a New York City 'on the brink' provides a hyperactive backdrop. Through often-exquisite prose (Lerner is a poet; Caduff's formulations can approximate verse) these authors explore the worlds that surface and dissolve under the shadow of prediction and the modes of attention that give them their shape." Ann Kelly, King's College London "I consider this book as a great contribution for the anthropology of life. Caduff's excellent investigation, both ethnographic and historical, offers a very convincing analysis of the material and conceptual configurations in which viruses are engaged, hence demonstrating the value of approaches which explore the agency of living beings and vital processes. He offers insightful ideas that shed new light on fundamental aspects of life. Focusing on the unique sort of beings viruses are, The Pandemic Perhaps constitutes, without any doubt, a very important work." Perig Pitrou, College de France "The Pandemic Perhaps presents a thoughtful ethnographic examination of the public culture of danger, specifically as the contemporary sense of impending doom has come to be linked ever more tightly to the assumed threat of a deadly influenza pandemic. More specifically still, it is a journey through the scientific, as well as governmental and corporate, reconstruction of the United States in the name of pandemic preparedness at a time when the biological world appears to be getting out of our control." Merrill Singer, Medical Anthropology Quarterly "Carlo Caduff's The Pandemic Perhaps is a story of the influenza pandemic that never was. Caduff tells this story from an American perspective through his encounters with scientists and other actors who engage in the august work of "preparedness," but in doing so, often draw upon and amplify an apocalyptic imaginary that doubtless shapes scientific and public priorities (and fears). With lucid and critical detail Caduff shows how forms of prophecy (new and old) push catastrophe towards further and further horizons." Todd Meyers, NYU Shanghai Caduff's book adds much to the history and social science of public health and infectious disease and will be of value to anyone interested in global health, influenza, or epidemiology. Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1 * A Ferret's Sneeze 2 * On the Run 3 * Casualties of Contagion 4 * Experiments of Concern 5 * A Real Test 6 * The Great Deluge Epilogue Note on the Cover Image Notes Bibliography Index
