Organized by the Center for German and European Studies (CGES) at Brandeis University

Friday, March 26, 2021

12-1:30pm Eastern Time (US) / 6-7:30pm German time

Zoom Webinar

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About the Event

When will this be over? When can we finally be together again, go to the movies, the theater, the restaurant without fear of infection? That is what everyone is asking, not just here in the US.

At the end of the summer of 2020 it seemed as though Germany had done everything right about Covid-19. Its numbers of infections and deaths were far below other countries. Shops and schools reopened. Mask wearing was not common. Then the second wave hit, and German infection rates skyrocketed. The country has been in lockdown since November 2020, with no end in sight. Although new infections are slowing down, the fear of more aggressive mutations has recently led to border closings, and a frustratingly slow vaccination process hampered by the lack of available vaccine is causing increasing tension in the governing coalition.

So, are we nearing the end or has life over the past year become the new normal? In this discussion we will look at experiences in the US and Germany to look forward and ask, how do pandemics end?

About the Speakers

Anja Martini has been a science reporter for Germany’s primary public TV news programs Tagesschau and Tagesthemen, and has been moderating the Coronavirus-Drosten-Podcast, which was nominated for a coveted Grimme-Prize.

Elanah Uretsky is Associate Professor of International and Global Studies at Brandeis University. A medical anthropologist broadly trained in public health with particular expertise on China. Professor Uretsky is author of Occupational Hazzards: Sex, Business, and HIV in Post-Mao China. She is also author of “China beat the coronavirus with science and strong public health measures, not just with authoritarianism” and teaches a course called Global Pandemics: History, Society, and Policy.