Critical Inquiry | 2021
COVID-19 Metaphors
Abstract
In her 1978 essay “Disease as Political Metaphor,” Susan Sontag demonstrated that the trope of the infectious malady has been used through human history as a metaphor to represent, describe, and critique failures of the polis by critics of culture and politics. The present COVID-19 crisis is ripe—some might say rife—with further examples that embody the complete spectrum from profound to ridiculous. The fact that many of the metaphors being used have been expropriated frommy own fields of evolutionary biology and earth science simply serves to underscore the difficulties, and the opportunities (some unrealized to date), that the metaphoric mode of communication entails. First, let’s get some facts straight about viruses. They get a bad rap from the press. Ask just about anyone about them and all you hear are complaints. It’s “disease this” and “infection that.” No one seems to have anything nice to say about viruses, which is a shame because you wouldn’t be here reading this without them. Viruses are the most ubiquitous life forms on the planet with 10 individuals cited as one recent estimate of their number. They are also one of the least understood. They live everywhere in nature and everywhere both on and inside of you. Less than 1 percent are known to be pathogenic, but many more are known to be symbiotic (which means they assist the host), mutualistic (which means both host and virus benefit from the association), or benign (which means we don’t know what they do). In addition, viruses’modus operandi of targeting specific cell types and interrupting these cells’ genetic functioning means they can be used to