ABSTRACT
I began this book with a discussion of Locard's principle, of the dictum that ‘every contact leaves a trace’. Before I could finish it, radical changes had come about in the ways we think about contact. What had seemed innocuous a few years ago suddenly became charged: touch, having routinely characterised so many areas of daily life, took on a rare intimacy and was otherwise relegated to the abject. Touch, in the COVID-19 pandemic, was to be understood as a vector of viral transmission. The medical modality of the forensic, in March 2020, suddenly came into public view. We became acutely aware of the transmissibility of airborne viruses in confined spaces, through touch and in the endless, recursive forms of contact occurring through global travel and goods transportation. There was a creeping realisation that, faced with this singular event, our understanding of contact must definitively change. Contact was no longer a marginal concern. Everyone was a potential carrier and should be ready to become the focus of contact tracing if required. A positive test meant that the contacts which had already taken place must be documented.
