The Viral Underclass

Maria and Julio are joined by Dr. Steven Thrasher, journalist and author of the new book, “The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide.” They discuss how viruses, from HIV/AIDS to the coronavirus, reveal inequities in our society. They also talk about the ways that COVID-19 continues impacting the most vulnerable populations, even as our leaders shift to a “post-pandemic” reality.

ITT Staff Picks:

“Future pandemics aren’t hypothetical; they’re inevitable and imminent. New infectious diseases have regularly emerged throughout recent decades, and climate change is quickening the pace of such events,” writes Ed Yong in this piece for The Atlantic.

Apoorva Mandavilli writes that viruses like COVID and Monkeypox “have revealed deep fissures in the nation’s framework for containing epidemics,” for The New York Times.

Joshua Gutterman Tranen writes about the harm reduction strategies pioneered by queer men of color to combat HIV/AIDS, and how that approach can be used to prevent and treat Monkeypox, for Boston Review.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Dr. Steven Thrasher