Geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic

Reuben Rose-Redwood,Tyler Blackman,Rob Kitchin,Michelle Buckley,Elia Apostolopoulou,Jeremy Crampton,Ugo Rossi,Lauren Rickards

doi:10.1177/2043820620936050

Abstract

The spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in the most devastating global public health crisis in over a century. At present, over 7 million people from around the world have contracted the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), leading to more than 400,000 deaths globally. The global health crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic has been compounded by political, economic, and social crises that have exacerbated existing inequalities and disproportionately affected the most vulnerable segments of society. The global pandemic has had profoundly geographical consequences, and as the current crisis continues to unfold, there is a pressing need for geographers and other scholars to critically examine its fallout. This introductory article provides an overview of the current special issue on the geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes 42 commentaries written by contributors from across the globe. Collectively, the contributions in this special issue highlight the diverse theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and thematic foci that geographical scholarship can offer to better understand the uneven geographies of the Coronavirus/COVID-19.

Highlights

As the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and its accompanying disease (COVID-19) have spread globally since December 2019, hundreds of thousands have died, millions more have been infected with the virus, and entire economies have come to a screeching halt amid government-imposed lockdowns
Governmental responses to the pandemic have rapidly exposed the impacts of prolonged austerity that had left public health care systems under-prepared to deal with a pandemic, in the countries most severely affected by the 2008 global economic crisis
Mutual aid and the need for cooperation, compassion, care, and reciprocity in the differential unfolding and consequences of the pandemic are explored by Simon Springer, who argues that the crisis exposes the failings of capitalism and neoliberal states, and offers the prospect to reconfigure society based on an ethics of people and nature before profit

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19, crisis, disease, inequality, pandemic, public health, SARS-CoV-2 The COVID-19 pandemic is, first and foremost, a global public health crisis, yet its impacts extend far beyond the realm of epidemiology alone.

Results

Conclusion