Medical Xpress March 8, 2023
March 11 marks three years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. As the virus spread, a pattern emerged: communities with a lower socioeconomic status tended to be disproportionately impacted.
“COVID is not just a medical outbreak, it is actually a health disparity problem,” said geographer Ming-Hsiang Tsou, director of the San Diego State University Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age. “Before, we knew there was a disparity, but COVID exaggerated the disparity patterns. It actually helped us reveal how vulnerable our communities are.”
For example, San Diego’s South Bay area has a high poverty rate and its residents experience inequitable access to health care. It was a COVID-19 hot spot throughout the pandemic, in...