Philip Alcabes

Philip Alcabes trained as an infectious-disease epidemiologist and has been writing about health and illness for the Scholar since 2004. He is a professor of public health at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He is the author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu, a history of epidemics as social phenomena.

The Pandemic Mood

Who created it and how it is maintained

by Philip Alcabes | Saturday, January 08, 2022

After the Chaos

Who tells the story of Covid and what will it mean?

by Philip Alcabes | Saturday, June 12, 2021

Experimental Overreach

Why doctors and researchers must ask for consent

by Philip Alcabes | Saturday, April 03, 2021

The Costs of Prudentialism

Why our public-health institutions failed to stop Covid-19

by Philip Alcabes | Saturday, January 16, 2021

Coronavirus and the Withering of the Public Sphere

What are the chances of a post-pandemic world?

by Philip Alcabes | Saturday, September 19, 2020

Coronavirus and the Coming Election

No matter who wins, the pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon

by Philip Alcabes | Saturday, October 31, 2020

Race and Public Health

The coronavirus reveals how this country fails to relieve suffering

by Philip Alcabes | Saturday, September 05, 2020

Bodies and Breath

All the ways we choke off lives

by Philip Alcabes | Thursday, June 25, 2020

Coronavirus World

Numbers, meaning, and truth

by Philip Alcabes | Monday, June 01, 2020

Beyond Technical Fixes for Coronavirus

This time, we must not leave the poor behind

by Philip Alcabes | Monday, April 20, 2020

Coronavirus: This Is Not a Plague

The metaphor obscures clear thinking

by Philip Alcabes | Monday, April 06, 2020

The Anxiety of Culpability

The limits of what we can know and what we can do about it

by Philip Alcabes | Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Coronavirus and Its Costs

by Philip Alcabes | Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Coronavirus as Crisis

We are not at war, America. There will be no victories or defeats.

by Philip Alcabes | Friday, March 20, 2020

How to Think About the Coronavirus

Whether we will collectively move away from fears that make us subservient and move, or inch, toward a more interconnectedly humane world—this, as far as I can tell, remains up to us

by Philip Alcabes | Tuesday, March 10, 2020

State of Vulnerability

Social distancing is important, but there’s more to consider

by Philip Alcabes | Sunday, March 15, 2020

Medication Nation

Our increasing reliance on drugs—prescribed, over-the-counter, illegal, and ordered online like pizza—suggests we have a deeper problem

by Philip Alcabes | Monday, December 07, 2015

The Ordinariness of AIDS

Can a disease that tells us so much about ourselves ever be anything but extraordinary?

by Philip Alcabes | Thursday, June 01, 2006

Failure to Heal

Today’s medical industry thrives on diagnosing and curing, but it doesn’t reach the soul

by Philip Alcabes | Wednesday, March 04, 2015