The year 2020 is illuminating important differences in the geography of vulnerability. People across the United States have had vastly different experiences of COVID-19 and the many societal stresses exacerbated by or directly resulting from the pandemic. Our understanding of the geographic spread of COVID-19 has largely been based on national-scale epidemiological models, while the place-based responses to community-level impacts of the disease have mainly been informed by local-scale surveys and reports of the lived experiences of individuals within those communities. Geographers have the capacity to integrate local and population-scale research, yet examples of this type of integration are rare among studies of vulnerability. During this meeting, the National Academies’ Geographical Sciences Committee will examine the geography of vulnerability in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This meeting will be held to discuss the following questions and consider potential next steps that could be taken to advance the capacity to characterize, predict, and alleviate vulnerability.
Keynote Talk
Dr. Eric Tate, Associate Professor, University of Iowa
Social Vulnerability and Place-based Risk
Panelists
Dr. Elisabeth Root, Professor, Ohio State University
Identifying Vulnerability from the COVID-19 Data: What is Possible and What is Missing?
Dr. Peter Smittenaar, Director of Data Science and AI, Surgo Foundation
COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index: Capturing the Geographical Dimensions of Vulnerability
Dr. LaToya Eaves, Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee Intersectional