The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide

Thrasher, a professor of journalism, public health, and queer studies at Northwestern University, debuts with a powerful look at “the relationship between viruses and marginalization.” Contending that “marginalized populations are subjected to increased harms of viral transmission, exposure, replication, and death,” Thrasher identifies 12 “social vectors”—including capitalism, racism, ableism, and “the liberal carceral state”—at the root of the problem. The story of Michael Johnson, “a gay, Black, sexually active wrestler with learning disabilities,” who was sentenced in 2015 to 30 years in prison for “recklessly transmitting” HIV to a white man and exposing four other sexual partners to the virus, provides a through line as Thrasher documents how minority groups are more susceptible to diseases and more likely to be stigmatized and punished for carrying them (in the late 19th century, he notes, fears of bubonic plague led to the quarantining of San Francisco’s Chinatown and the extension of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act). Elsewhere, Thrasher profiles a transgender Latinx activist who died of Covid-19 in March 2020, examines the links between ableism and antivaccine rhetoric, and argues that “capitalism’s economic goals [are] at odds with human health.” Rigorous scholarship and intimate portraits of life and death on the margins make this a must-read. Agent: Tanya McKinnon, McKinnon Literary. (Aug.)