The seamless web of next generation sequencing and Covid-19

Abstract

“When is Covid Covid?” is the title of a discussion paper published by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University on 11 September 2020. Amid the multinational struggle for an appropriate social and political approach to the crisis triggered by Covid-19, a recognized panel of medical experts alerts us that Covid-19 is defined very differently in different contexts. One definition focuses on symptoms, another one on RNA sequences of the virus. In the present contribution, this debate is taken up to discuss the extent to which new sequencing practices and their “seamless webs” become socially effective as instances of interpretation and design. At the same time, the limitations of such webs become noticeable as ruptures, seams, and scars.

Keywords

• seamless web
• next generation sequencing
• Covid-19