Living with an Infected Planet

Book excerpt: Living with an infected planet has led to an unprecedented crisis of care. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, life-making and death-making are at the center of global attention. Pandemic terms include COVID-19 response, frontline work, genocidal pandemic, lockdown, mask mandate, shadow pandemic, social distancing, vaccine wars, or virus racism. Elke Krasny presents a feminist mapping of key terms and key images defining the "pandemicscape", looking at a wide range of sources including media coverage, policy by the WHO, the UN or the IMF, recommendations by NGOs and feminist organizations, but also ways of seeing care in photography and painting. Arguing against going back to normal, she outlines a new global international care order.