'A very dangerous epoch': historians try to make sense of Covid

Experts say it is not just the pandemic that makes these feel like unusually significant times

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It was in the first few weeks of 2020, when early reports began filtering through of a mystery virus threatening to spread across the world, that Rob Perks decided to begin collecting.

As lead curator for oral history at the British Library, Perks's team routinely gather testimony to be archived for future research. But a comment by a historian who advises the institution stopped him in his tracks.