Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present. By Frank M. Snowden. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. 582 pp. $36.40 (paperback).

Abstract

With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Avian Influenza, and Ebola as recent reference points, Snowden explores the impact of epidemics on public health, human behavior, intellectual history, and war. Despite sharing borders with China, Vietnam and Mongolia both avoided mass outbreaks through swiftly imposed travel restrictions and face mask wearing in early 2020. Since flattening the curve in March 2020 through more draconian means, China has favored a multilateral approach to tackling COVID-19, as exhibited through their mask diplomacy and vaccine cooperation. Since the onset of COVID-19, hate crimes and other forms of discrimination against East Asians has skyrocketed.