
If God Is a Virus
Seema Yasmin
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed the world. Epidemiology, once the purview of epidemiologists, crisis planners, and medical specialists is now the daily lived reality for all of us. Through her journalism, regular public and media appearances, and her poetry, Dr. Seema Yasmin has been at the forefront of popularizing a scientifically rigorous approach to public health in general, and to epidemics in particular. In this book, Yasmin explores the roles of journalists, aid workers and doctors during an infectious crisis, while reimagining the role of viruses in the role of human evolution. She also raises important ethical questions about the role of the poet and the journalist in documenting crises. Haymarket Books is working with the author and the Pulitzer Center (which has supported Dr. Yasmin 's journalistic work) to generate supplemental curricular materials to accompany the book, allowing it to reach middle and high school students and people who are incarcerated