Abstract
The current COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the vulnerability of the human race in the face of communicable disease. But the pandemic also serves as a wake-up call to the cataclysmic impact that would befall the world if nuclear weapons were ever to be used again. Overwhelming pressure on health-services, considerable disruption to normal life, difficult choices regarding suspension of civil liberties, how to protect key workers and ensure society continues to function – these would all be magnified many times over in the event of a nuclear explosion. Thus, in addition to refocusing attention on the prevention and mitigation of global pandemics, the lessons of the current crisis are much more wide-ranging, and should lead to a renewal of public education, interest, and activism in reducing nuclear dangers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 271-276 |
| Journal | Bulletin of Atomic Scientists |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Sept 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Andrew Futter receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC). Peter Chilton and Richard Lilford receive funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West Midlands. Lilford receives additional funding from other NIHR grants and the Medical Research Council, UK. Views expressed here are not necessarily those of any funder, the NHS, or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- nuclear risk
- nuclear war
- nuclear weapons
- public health
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations
Access to Document
- FutterA2020Public
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Andrew Futter, Samuel I. Watson, Peter J. Chilton & Richard J. Lilford (2020) Nuclear war, public health, the COVID-19 epidemic: Lessons for prevention, preparation, mitigation, and education, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 76:5, 271-276, DOI: 10.1080/00963402.2020.1806592. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.