“Panama disease”: a pandemic…for bananas
Elizabeth Ruda Chicago, Illinois, United States “Standard” Cavendish bananas. Crop of photo by Steve Hopson, 2007, on Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Gros Michel bananas. Crop of photo by Zwifree, 2018, on Wikimedia. CC BY 4.0. The average person does not go to the grocery store, look around the produce section, and think, “Wow, these […]
Revising my bargain with the deity
Barry Perlman New York, New York, United States Photo by S. Tsuchiya on Unsplash. My parents lived into their nineties. Before they died, they endured years of dementia. Aware of my potential genetic inheritance, I have long harbored a deep dread of what my future might hold. If my curved pinky fingers were inherited […]
Battle of six feet
Mark Mosley Wichita, Kansas, United States Sleep (w/CPAP). Artwork by Howard J on Flickr, October 19, 2020. CC BY-NC 2.0. They die alone now; jet pilots soaring solo upward muffled voices sucked into machines speaking a language we recognize but too distant to quite understand until their plastic faces harden and eyes glaze over […]
AIDS: Thru a glass darkly
S.E.S. Medina Benbrook, Texas, United States AIDS Cases by Exposure Category and Year of Report 1985-1996, United States. CDC/NCHSTP/DHAP/Jean G. Smith. Courtesy of Public Health Image Library. Via Public Domain Files. Public domain. I sat in the deep, cool shade of a stout, leafy Texas cedar escaping the torrid summer heat, idle thoughts meandering. […]
“Killed By Vaccination”: the enduring currency of a nineteenth century illogic
Saty Satya-Murti Santa Maria, California, United States Fig. 1. William Young’s 1886 pamphlet alleging that smallpox vaccinations slaughter and kill. Source: Wellcome Collection. In Public Domain. Vaccine misinformation and anti-vaccination conspiracy theories are not new but have acquired a combative energy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly all the arguments now raised against vaccination were […]
Happy hypoxia
Khyati Gupta Mumbai, India Scots Mission Hospital, Tiberias (Torrance). Hospital beds. Photo. Matson Collection, c. 1934-39. Library of Congress. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Poet’s statement: Happy hypoxia is a poem I wrote while trying to capture the thoughts of a patient in solitude infected with coronavirus amidst the second wave of the pandemic. […]
Disaster code
Nohad Masri Beirut, Lebanon Aftermath. Artwork by Hala Masri, August 2020. It was six in the evening and we were finishing our hematology board virtual meeting. Because COVID-19 cases were again on the rise, the hospital staff was working at half capacity, with the other half at home. The chemotherapy unit patients had finished […]
Remembrance of things past
JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom Photo by Anita Jankovic on Unsplash In these troubled times imposed by Covid-19, much attention has been paid to depression, stress, and complaints of enforced isolation and of longing for the old days—the “normal times.” In this and in other contexts, nostalgia is regarded as a normal sentiment […]
Review: The History of the World in 100 pandemics, plagues and epidemics
Arpan Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Cover: The History of the World in 100 pandemics, plagues and epidemics. The publication of this book could not have been better timed. The book sets out to show how pandemics, epidemics, and infectious diseases have shaped human history over the last 5,000 years. Its contents help us place […]
The invisible manager
Javishkar Reddy Johannesburg, South Africa Photo by meo from Pexels When I was twelve, I was hit on the head by a cricket ball. A few days later, I had my first seizure. Over the years, I have had many attacks, which have resulted in three chipped teeth, a cracked skull, a dislocated shoulder, […]