What is Societal Reclosing

In the COVID-19 pandemic era, political leaders have to navigate a difficult socio-political landscape balancing mass public health with socio-economic interests. They have to protect their susceptible populations and protect the social structures supporting their respective economies, healthcare systems, educational systems, international relationships, law and order, cultures and subcultures, national values, and others. A pandemic tends to disrupt systems and spark other social discontents among roiling publics. In May 2020, the U.S. started reopening from a mass lockdown involving a majority of its states, even as viral transmission rose. This work explores visual senses of societal shutdown, societal reopening, and societal (partial) reclosing in the U.S. in social imagery (all captured July 3, 2020, during the crisis) to better understand public responses to public health and other government interventions.