During the winter of 2019/2020, COVID-19 – an influenza-type disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus – spread throughout the world. By March 11th, WHO declared it a pandemic, and across the globe many countries took drastic measures to control the outbreak. In Denmark, statewide shutdowns were announced, and social distancing measures were set in place. The pandemic and the measures taken had far-reaching consequences on many levels.
This article looks at potential existential consequences with regard to our bodies. Drawing on a variety of philosophical notions of the body (i.e. Descartes, Merleau-Ponty, posthumanism and Foucault), it reflects on how the corona crisis has simultaneously emphasized our bodily and biological dependence on the world and caused a desire to contain, control and cut off these connections. With the corona crisis we see a backlash against newer trends from immunology and microbiome research of thinking about bodies as colonies. The crisis and the sanitary measures all reinstate attempts to separate and keep bodies clean and uncontaminated, stressing the role of protection (protective gear and protective/cautious behavior), similar to conversations about HIV and safer sex practices.
The article concludes by considering why these philosophical views on the body might be relevant to medicine, and why the effects of the corona crisis on our body conception matter in a broader context.