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Paper short abstract

We explore the social impacts of 'objective' testing interventions throughout successive, layered epidemic crises along Uganda's western border.

Paper long abstract

Scholars have noted the obsolescence of health metrics, particularly during epidemic crisis, where testing is restricted to particular spaces and risk groups. In this paper, we move beyond the limitations of epidemiological statistics, to consider the social lives of purportedly ‘scientific’ measures and explanations of disease origin and evolution. We present a historically-grounded and ethnographically engaged argument grounded in local responses forged through successive epidemic responses (HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Covid-19), supported by empirical analyses from sites situated along the western border of Uganda. We explore social responses to the production of ‘risk groups’ through testing metrics during the panic of these health emergencies. We argue for a recognition of the social power of epidemiological data, in the absence of public officials willingness to acknowledge uncertainty and ignorance. We comment too on the dissonance between expert attempts to isolate ‘risk groups’ and local strategies to contain epidemics in the region, the latter of which tend to occur within concurrent ‘othering’ of social classes en masse.