In this extraordinarily well researched and elegantly written book, Karl Heinz Roth showcases how deeply the global pandemic has affected our societies and people’s everyday lives. A fundamental work that helps us to critically account for the crisis and avoid the likes in the future.

For two years, the world has now been dominated by the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It has taken hold on all continents and in every region. It spread in multiple waves and formed ever new epicentres. It pierced through people’s everyday lives, changed social dynamics, dominated the media, challenged the political establishment, and put numerous scientific disciplines to the test. The physician and historian Karl Heinz Roth describes the events from a global perspective and goes back to the 2000s to explain their background. He analyses the spread and the dynamic of Covid-19 and discusses the pandemic’s characteristics and its effects on humans. He addresses countermeasures and the failures that have come to light in the context as well as the mental, political, social, and economic consequences of the lockdowns.

In this book, the individual aspects of a global pandemic are examined from an interdisciplinary perspective, put into relation to one another and are contextualized for the first time. It allows fo the discussion and resolution of controversial questions such as whether the virus escaped from a lab, the role of large international institutions, as well as questions on effects and collateral damage.

Karl Heinz Roth
born in 1942, holds doctorates in medicine and historical sciences and worked as a general practitioner in a joint practice until 1997. In 1986 he co-founded the Foundation of 20th Century Social History and has been a board member ever since. He authored numerous publications on work, medical, social, economic, and science history in the 20th and early 21st century.