Reflections on the 2020 COVID Pandemic in 2025

Even years after the COVID-19 pandemic, new studies continue to emerge, exploring its implications and the “new normal” of long COVID-19 linked to biosocial conditions. The pandemic affected individuals and institutions, creating mechanisms of solidarity and responsibility. Three ethnographic studies in this section (see Lang, Alex, and Rafi) demonstrate how biosocial and moral worlds intertwine, illustrating human interactions with social, natural, supernatural, and cosmological realms as strategies to build resilience against various challenges. Focusing on these studies, I pose several urgent questions in this commentary. What if governments had participated in community festivals to promote health and preserve heritage, while respecting Indigenous knowledge and addressing systemic inequalities? How might this influence the politics of knowledge and power, and lead to new forms of biopolitical governance? What if governments recognized and supported anthropology’s role in addressing urgent issues instead of marginalizing it? Exploring these questions could foster more inclusive and holistic approaches to global crises including COVID-19.