Blog by Katy Giebenhain On this side of the pond access to medicines is called “complicated” and that’s no accident. As Fran Quigley points out in his introduction to Prescription for the People: An Activist’s Guide to Making Medicine Affordable, calls for reform get bogged down in technical terms and acronyms. Furthermore, he writes, “[T]his […]
Category: Blog
What Poetry Can Do For Us During the Pandemic
Blog by Alisha Yi and David Xiang “Thank you for this time. I needed this,” one participant remarked after sharing her poem of recently losing a family member. It is moments like this that we are reminded of the healing power of poetry—its ability to permit us to wrestle with our feelings, to redefine our […]
What’s at Hand?
Blog by Swati Joshi As a Medical Humanities researcher, I have always wondered how we learn about our body through language and how our anatomy forms the metaphorical elements of the linguistic corpus. This piece attempts to map the transformation in our understanding of hands in the face of the pandemic of COVID-19. Language has […]
Numbness and Angels
Reflection by Clare Best Risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy, December 2006. We have breast cancer in the family, on my mother’s side. While I was starting to think about whether to have preventive surgery, my cousin developed multiple aggressive tumours. This meant that in two generations of women I was the only one who had not yet […]
Immunity-Based Licenses and the Politics of the Body
Blog by Insa Marie Schmidt, MD, MPH As COVID-19 continues to ravage the globe, several countries have now proposed to issue certifications proving that a person has developed immunity against the disease, either through recovery from infection or through a potential vaccine. These so-called “immunity passports” or “immunity-based licenses” would allow those who have antibodies […]
#WhiteCoatforBlackLives: Physicians Advocating for Social Justice
Blog by Dr Neha Pidatala White Coats for Black Lives movement was ignited six years ago, when Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was murdered by a police officer in Ferguson, MO. In 2014, nationwide “die-in” protests were held in more than 75 medical schools in protest of police brutality. George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis […]
Human Trafficking: The Implications of COVID-19
Blog by Sonal Sian and Shalini Jose COVID-19 has had significant effects on vulnerable populations by exacerbating their exploitation and rendering them more susceptible to poor health outcomes. One particularly vulnerable population that has not received much attention is human trafficking victims. This is especially the case in India, where discussions about trafficking and its […]
In Times of Crisis: Remember Those Lost in the System
Blog by Caroline Lee One chilly fall night, I approached the apartment complex and climbed a steep and dilapidated concrete staircase leading up to the door. After entering, I was met with yet another set of staircases leading up to the residence, this time made out of wooden floorboards that audibly creaked with each step. […]
Social Inequity and Access to Mental Healthcare in India During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Blog by Dr. Migita D’cruz The novel coronavirus pandemic has been called the great equalizer or leveller of society. The grim reality, however, is that it is anything but that. The global response to the pandemic has accentuated, if not exacerbated existing social inequities and one of the corollaries to this is compromised mental […]
A Kafkaesque Pandemic
Blog by Cormac Francis Mullins and JJ Coughlan During the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, it was difficult not to experience a sense of claustrophobia. Confined to one’s room and sequestered from society and family, the dystopian universe we had been faced with felt oppressive and nightmarish. In many senses, it felt “Kafkaesque.” As […]