Philip Alcabes

Philip Alcabes is Professor Emeritus of Public Health at Hunter College, the City University of New York. His writing on health, medicine, and illness has appeared in the Scholar since 2004. He is working on a book about the institution of medicine and public health.

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 6, 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

State of Vulnerability

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

By Philip Alcabes | Sunday March 15, 2020
Men wearing masks to protect from COVID-19

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

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 7, 2015

Failure to Heal

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

By Philip Alcabes | Wednesday March 4, 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 1, 2006

The Twilight Self

By Philip Alcabes | Monday December 1, 2025

The Pandemic Mood

By Philip Alcabes | Saturday January 8, 2022

After the Chaos

By Philip Alcabes | Saturday June 12, 2021

Experimental Overreach

By Philip Alcabes | Saturday April 3, 2021

The Costs of Prudentialism

By Philip Alcabes | Saturday January 16, 2021

Coronavirus and the Coming Election

By Philip Alcabes | Saturday October 31, 2020

Race and Public Health

By Philip Alcabes | Saturday September 5, 2020

Bodies and Breath

By Philip Alcabes | Thursday June 25, 2020

Coronavirus World

By Philip Alcabes | Monday June 1, 2020

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