People, politics and death: International, national and community responses to HIV and COVID-19

Global epidemics, such as HIV as well as COVID-19, provide important windows into the political dimensions of health. They are complex events that involve not only viral transmission but also a wide range of social responses at community, national and international levels. This chapter examines responses to HIV and COVID-19 in comparative perspective, showing how these responses have been shaped by the broader social and historical context; how knowledge (as well as ignorance) about each pandemic has been generated and contested over time; and how negative responses in the form of ‘stigma’, prejudice and discrimination have been deployed (and challenged) in relation to both pandemics. In so doing, it explores how pandemics come to be defined as public health ‘emergencies’. The analysis we develop suggests that responses to both HIV and COVID-19 provide insights into the ways in which multiple forms of power are at play – and highlight the need to place emphasis not only on the social determinants of health, but also on what is best understood as the social and political determinants of death.