The Scenes of Shame and Stigma in COVID-19 research team, Luna Dolezal, Arthur Rose and Fred Cooper, have co-authored a book that investigates how shame and stigma were generated and exacerbated by public health policy, messaging and practice during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK during 2020. The book titled, COVID-19 and Shame: Political Emotions and Public Health in the UK, was contracted by Bloomsbury Academic for the Critical Interventions Medical Humanities book series and is available to pre-order now.
The book builds on previous publications from the Scenes of Shame and Stigma in COVID-19 Project which look at the public shaming of frontline doctors during Covid, the positive and negative stigma attached to health workers and the idea the ‘saving face’ is motivating political public health decisions. As well as these publications, the project team has published an article in The Lancet titled COVID-19, online shaming, and health-care professionals.
Alongside the book, the research team have been working with Volume and have produced a 6-episode podcast series to act as an accompaniment to the book. The series looks at scenes of shame and stigma in the UK, and focuses on particular findings that have come up in the research. Released in Feb 2022