News Tip: Coronavirus Outbreak Is a ‘Call to Action,’ Duke Expert Says

The coronavirus outbreak has prompted widespread media attention and public anxiety. Duke University’s Priscilla Wald, a professor of English who studies public narratives about disease and epidemics, is available for comment.

Quotes:

“In addition to alerting the public about the World Health Organization’s warnings about the coronavirus outbreak, the media should be educating the public about how pandemics are largely fueled by poverty and can be combated,” says Priscilla Wald, a professor of English at Duke University. “Sensational stories sell newspapers and go viral; they titillate a public primed by popular culture for catastrophe. But the fear they inspire distract us from the problems we can and should be addressing.”  

“Quarantine and vaccine are very important means of responding to a pandemic, but nothing will go farther to contain the spread of disease than a healthy population with access to health care.”

“The saturation of a 24/7 news media creates the effect of an impending apocalypse. It reinforces a sense of helplessness and dependence on medical experts. The threat of a pandemic should not inspire paralysis. It should be a call to action. It should be a reminder that access to health care should not be a luxury, but a basic human right and a priority -- at home and abroad.”

“Pandemic threats are also the result of environmental problems we’re not addressing, including a changing climate that is making parts of the world more tropical. As we can expect more natural disasters, we can expect more pandemic threats. Health care and environment need to be thought of as the same problem.”

“Mid-crisis, underlying long-term problems such as the problem of global poverty seem too large to address or even comprehend. We have more immediate concerns. Yet, the threat of a pandemic is precisely the moment for such reminders.”

Bio:

Priscilla Wald, a professor of English at Duke University, is the author of “Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative” (Duke University Press, 2008). She can discuss the intersection of medicine and myth, and contemporary stories we tell ourselves about emerging infections.
https://english.duke.edu/people/priscilla-wald

For additional comment, contact Priscilla Wald at: pwald@duke.edu
 

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Media Contact:
Alison Jones
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