In this special issue, we note the percussive - immediate, disruptive and urgent - effects of the coronavirus pandemic, while anticipating its longer term repercussions. As social institutions, global and local economies, political relations, and everyday social lives are being remade, we highlight the implications of this microbial infection and its virulence. In doing so, we illustrate how medical anthropology both illuminates the present and warns of COVID-19's unequal unfolding.
Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus pandemic; international governance; public anthropology; rapid response; urgency.