ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on narrative responses to the unfolding situation and how local, national and global actors interpreted events, arguing that pandemic imaginaries are not only shaped by public and global health discourses but shape them in turn. It is concerned not so much with how to live through a pandemic as with representations of what it means to do so successfully as a nation-state. The chapter draws on research findings from a project on pandemic preparedness in regional and national settings including attendance at meetings, online interviews and analysis of secondary sources. The chapter concludes by reflecting on shifts in these narratives with a growing focus on vaccine rollout as a technological solution to the pandemic in face of limited healthcare and economic resources and continuing global inequities. While there were more positive experiences for some participants, such as being given access to online support within their home spaces, the majority described a further deterioration of their home lives.
