Linguistic engagement as public health

This short response reframes anti-genderist linguistic and discursive praxes as a viral pathogen, analogous to COVID-19. Accordingly, the four research contributions to this volume document and analyse the spread and virulence of anti-genderist forces. This response makes additional allusions to Gal’s framework accounting for enregisterment. Ultimately, this leads to a call for linguists to be more and more deeply active in the disruption of such semiotic ecosystems and their constituent parts, reconceiving of themselves as akin to public health officers, while also reasserting the place of linguistics and linguistic scholarship in the humanities.