Immunitary Life in COVID-19 Times: Understandings, Practices and Experiences Among Members of Marginalised Social Groups.

Abstract

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the concepts of human immunity and immune responsiveness have received new attention. This article reports findings from a project that interviewed members of four marginalised subgroups of the Australian population with experience of blood-borne viruses, other chronic health conditions and social stigma about how they understand their immunity and in what practices they have engaged to strengthen their immune responsiveness since the outbreak of COVID. In participants' accounts, there were echoes of long-held concepts about immunity as self-defence against invasion and personal responsibility for strong immune responsiveness. However, these ideas were combined with less adversarial concepts referring to the importance of friendly collaboration with one's immune system, as well as the role of collective responses in strengthening individuals' immunity. Participants also acknowledged the influence of external factors beyond their control that affected their immunity. They were strongly supportive of COVID vaccines but also recognised that they were just one part of a 'package' of immunitarian behaviours and health factors required to protect themselves and others. This study, therefore, contributes to a more inclusive conceptualisation of immunity-related biopolitics that acknowledges the sociocultural and material conditions in which immunities extend beyond the atomised individual body.