{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T01:19:22Z","timestamp":1788311962877,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1774483200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":25,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Biosoc. Sci."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>This paper examines how past experience and legacies of epidemics shaped Sierra Leone\u2019s response to COVID-19 and how these influences evolved over time. COVID-19 unfolded in the wake of the West African Ebola epidemic (2013\u20132016), a crisis which was unprecedented in scale. Despite differing markedly in both transmission patterns and clinical outcomes, the Sierra Leonean government repeatedly invoked Ebola when responding to COVID-19, framing the new outbreak through the lens of the old. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with policymakers, response personnel, health workers, and members of the public, the paper analyses how Ebola\u2019s imprint surfaced across four domains of the COVID-19 response: public and governmental framings, the design and implementation of key control measures, disputes over incentives and hazard pay, and practices of data and testing. It shows that when confronting a new outbreak, the past manifests in diverse ways. The analysis reveals how these \u2018epidemic pasts\u2019 \u2013 contained in lessons, memories, legacies, and assumptions \u2013 actively constitute \u2018epidemic presents\u2019; and should be understood as politically mobilised and socially contested, shaping responses in both enabling and constraining ways. As such, it is suggested that past experience has been under-explored in preparedness and response, and that formal \u2018lessons learned\u2019 exercises offer a limited view of how the past is relevant.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/s0021932026100509","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T10:25:31Z","timestamp":1774520731000},"page":"121-138","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Ebola in the rear-view mirror: how epidemic pasts shaped Sierra Leone\u2019s preparedness and response to Covid-19"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"58","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7137-8252","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fred","family":"Martineau","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Public Health and Policy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2114-7023","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Annie","family":"Wilkinson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00ayhx656","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of Sussex"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lawrence","family":"Babawo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Njala University"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1469-8676.2008.00050.x"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/01459740.2021.2015591"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref9","first-page":"115","volume-title":"The Politics of Fear: M\u00e9decins sans Fronti\u00e8res and the West African Ebola Epidemic","author":"Desclaux","year":"2017"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1468-5973.2009.00575.x"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref32","volume-title":"100 Days Mission to Respond to Future Pandemic Threats","year":"2021"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10810730.2016.1209599"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/bhm.2020.0090"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref43","article-title":"Understanding the emergence of Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone: Stalking the virus in the threatening wake of emergence","volume":"7","author":"Wauquier","year":"2015","journal-title":"PLoS currents"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/disa.12643"},{"key":"S0021932026100509_ref7","unstructured":"Bosch, TE (2016) Memory Studies, A brief concept paper. 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