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1. Pandemic Injustice: Spatial and Social Distributions of COVID-19 in the US Epicenter

   https://doi.org/10.1142/S234573762150007X  

   McPhearson, Timon; Grabowski, Zbigniew; Herreros-Cantis, Pablo; Mustafa, Ahmed; Ortiz, Luis; Kennedy, Christopher; Tomateo, Claudia; Lopez, Bianca; Olivotto, Veronica; Vantu, Avigail (April 2021, Journal of Extreme Events)

   null (Ed.)

   We examine the uneven social and spatial distributions of COVID-19 and their relationships with indicators of social vulnerability in the U.S. epicenter, New York City (NYC). As of July 17th, 2020, NYC, despite having only 2.5% of the U.S. population, has [Formula: see text]6% of all confirmed cases, and [Formula: see text]16% of all deaths, making it a key learning ground for the social dynamics of the disease. Our analysis focuses on the multiple potential social, economic, and demographic drivers of disproportionate impacts in COVID-19 cases and deaths, as well as population rates of testing. Findings show that immediate impacts of COVID-19 largely fall along lines of race and class. Indicators of poverty, race, disability, language isolation, rent burden, unemployment, lack of health insurance, and housing crowding all significantly drive spatial patterns in prevalence of COVID-19 testing, confirmed cases, death rates, and severity. Income in particular has a consistent negative relationship with rates of death and disease severity. The largest differences in social vulnerability indicators are also driven by populations of people of color, poverty, housing crowding, and rates of disability. Results highlight the need for targeted responses to address injustice of COVID-19 cases and deaths, importance of recovery strategies that account for differential vulnerability, and provide an analytical approach for advancing research to examine potential similar injustice of COVID-19 in other U.S. cities. Significance Statement Communities around the world have variable success in mitigating the social impacts of COVID-19, with many urban areas being hit particularly hard. Analysis of social vulnerability to COVID-19 in the NYC, the U.S. national epicenter, shows strongly disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on low income populations and communities of color. Results highlight the class and racial inequities of the coronavirus pandemic in NYC, and the need to unpack the drivers of social vulnerability. To that aim, we provide a replicable framework for examining patterns of uneven social vulnerability to COVID-19- using publicly available data which can be readily applied in other study regions, especially within the U.S.A. This study is important to inform public and policy debate over strategies for short- and long-term responses that address the injustice of disproportionate impacts of COVID-19. Although similar studies examining social vulnerability and equity dimensions of the COVID-19 outbreak in cities across the U.S. have been conducted (Cordes and Castro 2020, Kim and Bostwick 2002, Gaynor and Wilson 2020; Wang et al. 2020; Choi and Unwin 2020), this study provides a more comprehensive analysis in NYC that extends previous contributions to use the highest resolution spatial units for data aggregation (ZCTAs). We also include mortality and severity rates as key indicators and provide a replicable framework that draws from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability indicators for communities in NYC. 

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2. Regional geographies and public health lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Arctic

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1324105  

   Tiwari, Sweta; Petrov, Andrey N; Golosov, Nikolay; Devlin, Michele; Welford, Mark; DeGroote, John; Degai, Tatiana; Ksenofontov, Stanislav (January 2024, Frontiers in Public Health)

   ObjectivesThis study examines the COVID-19 pandemic’s spatiotemporal dynamics in 52 sub-regions in eight Arctic states. This study further investigates the potential impact of early vaccination coverage on subsequent COVID-19 outcomes within these regions, potentially revealing public health insights of global significance. MethodsWe assessed the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic in Arctic sub-regions using three key epidemiological variables: confirmed cases, confirmed deaths, and case fatality ratio (CFR), along with vaccination rates to evaluate the effectiveness of the early vaccination campaign on the later dynamics of COVID-19 outcomes in these regions. ResultsFrom February 2020 to February 2023, the Arctic experienced five distinct waves of COVID-19 infections and fatalities. However, most Arctic regions consistently maintained Case Fatality Ratios (CFRs) below their respective national levels throughout these waves. Further, the regression analysis indicated that the impact of initial vaccination coverage on subsequent cumulative mortality rates and Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) was inverse and statistically significant. A common trend was the delayed onset of the pandemic in the Arctic due to its remoteness. A few regions, including Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Northern Canada, Finland, and Norway, experienced isolated spikes in cases at the beginning of the pandemic with minimal or no fatalities. In contrast, Alaska, Northern Sweden, and Russia had generally high death rates, with surges in cases and fatalities. ConclusionAnalyzing COVID-19 data from 52 Arctic subregions shows significant spatial and temporal variations in the pandemic’s severity. Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Northern Canada, Finland, and Norway exemplify successful pandemic management models characterized by low cases and deaths. These outcomes can be attributed to successful vaccination campaigns, and proactive public health initiatives along the delayed onset of the pandemic, which reduced the impact of COVID-19, given structural and population vulnerabilities. Thus, the Arctic experience of COVID-19 informs preparedness for future pandemic-like public health emergencies in remote regions and marginalized communities worldwide that share similar contexts. 

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3. COVID‐19‐related anxiety: How do coping and optimism relate to substance use in African–American young adults?

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22863  

   Singleton, Gwendolyn; Johnson, Leona; Singleton, Nkosi; Li, Huijun (April 2022, Journal of Community Psychology)

   The COVID–19 pandemic has greatly affected college students nationwide. Recent research suggests that theCOVID–19 pandemic has disproportionately impactedAfrican–American young adults. The infection case rates, hospitalizations, and death rates in African–American populations are 2–5 times higher than among White populations. The intergenerational trauma and systemic racism that African–Americans have faced in past and present times have fomented conditions that lead to vulnerability within this historically resilient community.These stresses and losses increase the risks of anxiety and substance use. This study examined the relationship between COVID‐19‐related anxiety and substance use, and how adaptive coping and optimism influence this relationship in African–Americans young adults. Results reveal that COVID‐related anxiety predicts alcohol and drug use. Optimism and adaptive coping are related to lower pandemic‐related anxiety, alcohol, and drug use among African-American young adults. 

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4. COVID-GAN: Estimating Human Mobility Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic through Spatio-Temporal Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3397536.3422261  

   Bao, Han; Zhou, Xun; Zhang, Yingxue; Li, Yanhua; Xie, Yiqun (November 2020, Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems)

   null (Ed.)

   The COVID-19 pandemic has posed grand challenges to policy makers, raising major social conflicts between public health and economic resilience. Policies such as closure or reopen of businesses are made based on scientific projections of infection risks obtained from infection dynamics models. While most parameters in infection dynamics models can be set using domain knowledge of COVID-19, a key parameter - human mobility - is often challenging to estimate due to complex social contexts and limited training data under escalating COVID-19 conditions. To address these challenges, we formulate the problem as a spatio-temporal data generation problem and propose COVID-GAN, a spatio-temporal Conditional Generative Adversarial Network, to estimate mobility (e.g., changes in POI visits) under various real-world conditions (e.g., COVID-19 severity, local policy interventions) integrated from multiple data sources. We also introduce a domain-constraint correction layer in the generator of COVID-GAN to reduce the difficulty of learning. Experiments using urban mobility data derived from cell phone records and census data show that COVID-GAN can well approximate real-world human mobility responses, and that the proposed domain-constraint based correction can greatly improve solution quality. 

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5. Compounding hazards and intersecting vulnerabilities: experiences and responses to extreme heat during COVID-19

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1760  

   Wilhelmi, O V; Howe, P D; Hayden, M H; O’Lenick, C R (August 2021, Environmental Research Letters)

   Abstract Extreme heat is a major threat to human health worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its complexity and global reach, created unprecedented challenges for public health and highlighted societal vulnerability to hazardous hot weather. In this study, we used data from a three-wave nationally representative survey of 3036 American adults to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected extreme heat vulnerability during the summer of 2020. We used mixed effects models to examine the roles of socio-demographic characteristics and pandemic-related factors in the distribution of negative heat effects and experiences across the United States. The survey findings show that over a quarter of the US population experienced heat-related symptoms during the summer of 2020. Mixed effects models demonstrate that among all socio-economic groups, those who were most vulnerable were women, those in low-income households, unemployed or on furlough, and people who identify as Hispanic or Latino or as other non-white census categories (including Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and multi-racial US residents). The study findings indicate that millions of people in the US had difficulty coping with or responding to extreme heat because of the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited access to cooling as well as COVID-19 related social isolation played a major role in adverse heat health effects. Geographically, the South and the West of the US stood out in terms of self-reported negative heat effects. Overall, the study suggests that the intersection of two health hazards—extreme heat and coronavirus SARS-CoV2—amplified existing systemic vulnerabilities and expanded the demographic range of people vulnerable to heat stress. 

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