The Social Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic showed, yet again, that the consequences of pandemics emerge from far more than the pathogen itself. They emerge from the social conditions that set the stage for who becomes sick, who lives, and who dies. This book offers a comprehensive account of the social forces that created the COVID-19 pandemic and points to lessons we would be wise to learn if we are to mitigate the next pandemic. * Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, School of Public Health, Boston University *The distribution and control of disease in human populations has always been profoundly and inextricably social. As these authors skillfully and exhaustively demonstrate, the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a paradigmatic case study of the social determinants of exposure, infection, and disease. Race, gender, class, and power all play starring roles in this terrible saga, along with work, housing, policing and trust. This book provides a comprehensive account of how to understand mass disease in terms of a society out of joint. * Jay S. Kaufman, PhD, Professor, School of Population and Global Health, McGill University *

Dustin T. Duncan, ScD, is Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where he directs the Columbia Spatial Epidemiology Lab and codirects the Social and Spatial Epidemiology Unit. In addition to HIV and sleep epidemiology, his interests include characterizing the COVID-19 epidemic, especially among marginalized populations. He has received several early-career and distinguished scientificcontribution, mentoring, and leadership awards from organizations such as the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science and the National Academy of Medicine.

Ichiro Kawachi, MBChB, PhD, is John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Kawachi is also co-editor of the eponymous first textbook on Social Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press in 2000. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Stephen S. Morse, PhD, is Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. His research focuses on epidemiology and risk assessment of emerging infectious diseases, and improving disease early warning systems. His book, Emerging Viruses (Oxford University Press, 1993) was selected by American Scientist as one of the “100 Top Science Books of the 20th Century.” He served on the Steering Committee of the Institute of Medicine’s Forumon Microbial Threats, and on numerous National Academies of Sciences and international committees. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Academy of Microbiology.

Sir Michael Marmot, CH, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRCP, FFPHM, FMedSci, FBA, is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Institute of Health Equity at the University College London.