An Ecological Assessment for COVID-19 and Other Pandemics

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We are excited to announce that our paper ‘An Ecological Assessment for COVID-19 and Other Pandemics’ is being published in an upcoming book for the World Scientific Book Series in Extreme Events titled ‘Policy and Governance in Preventing and Mitigating Disasters and Dangers’.

The origins of this paper started as an immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic and through the support or advisor Prof. Ilan Kelman the paper has been accepted into this book Edited by Lisa Guppy (University College London, UK) and Yulia Ioffe (University College London, UK).

ABSTRACT

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, those from racialised communities were the most vulnerable and at the highest risk of contracting the virus. Multiple studies identify environmental and social determinants, such as overcrowded housing and economic deprivation, as contributing factors for the disproportionate COVID-19 rates amongst racialised communities. This paper will show that to fully understand the link between high rates of COVID-19 mortalities and racialised communities, both an ecological analysis and biological lens is needed. An ecological analysis highlights how a person’s habitat and the experiences within it mediate their susceptibility to disease. Moreover, to understand how this mediation works, this paper will use stress response as a biological lens to link a person to their habitat and the poor health outcomes that contributed to the most severe documented COVID-19 health outcomes, mortality. COVID-19 mortality rates highlight the depth of the crises created by people's susceptibility to contracting COVID-19 due to structural marginalization. Through this lens, the paper will serve as an anti-racist framework as it removes the focus and blame on the individual’s biology and behavior and instead focuses on systemic marginalization of communities. This can be used to create future pandemic responses that are rooted in justice for all peoples.

Read more from us in our ‘Stories & Provocations’ section