COVID-19 and Shame: Political Emotions and Public Health in the UK

Abstract

This open access book examines the various ways that shame and stigma became an integral part of the United Kingdom’s public health response to COVID-19 during 2020, this book argues that there is an urgent need for public health interventions that are “shame sensitive,” addressing the experience of shame as a crucial, if often overlooked, consequence of such interventions.

As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded in 2020, interventions by the UK government maximised rather than minimized experiences of shame and stigma. From healthcare workers insulted in the streets to the online shaming of “Covidiots” and the “lepers of Leiceister”, for example, public animus about the pandemic found scapegoats for its frustrations. But, rather than intervene with robust strategies to sensitize people about the effects of this behaviour, the government’s healthcare policies and rhetoric seemed to exacerbate experiences of shame and stigma, relying on a language that intensified oppositional, antagonistic thinking, while dissimulating about its own responsibilities.

Through a series of case studies around topics such as 'fat shaming', the term 'covidiots', and racial profiling, this provocative book identifies a systemic failure to manage stigma and shame-producing circumstances in four key ‘scenes’: healthcare contexts, social situations, domestic life and political decision-making