Humanizing Pandemics by Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Societal Response to Pandemics: The case of Bengal (aka West Bengal)

Abstract

This study is interdisciplinary in nature and brings in its fold dissemination of social science research on health. In the light of the recent Covid 19 crisis, there has been an increasing interest towards epidemiology and to understand the concept of epidemics or pandemics. Intermittent outbreaks of infectious diseases have had profound effect on societies throughout history. Historical perspective helps in understanding the extent to which panic, connected with social stigma, threat, prejudice, frustrated public health efforts can control the spread of disease. The intensity of the spread of a pandemic and the number of people affected in country and specific regions depend a lot on the measures of state control at the local and centre-level. However, the severity of an epidemic which slowly pervades into a pandemic depends on the spatio-temporal frame of a region. The research poses a basic question, how do members of the society respond to the threat of pandemic and to the hygiene, social isolation and other measures proposed by public health, over time and selects the case of Bengal which has witnessed three pandemics since the 18thcentury.. The study follows a mixed-method approach and the discussion provided a few general observations which however are not exhaustive to pandemic reaction, for the study area like threat Perception, emergence of leadership, science communication etc.