EXPOSING COVID-19 VULNERABILITIES ACROSS BRITISH COLUMBIA

The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research awarded geographers Valorie Crooks and Nadine Schuurman a COVID-19 Research Response grant to undertake critical research to address immediate and emerging issues arising from the pandemic.

One of ten B.C. research teams to receive funding, Crooks and Schuurman used a spatial approach to understanding vulnerable places with regard to COVID-19 in British Columbia.

Crooks, a trained health geographer, and Schuurman, an expert in geographic information science, made the perfect team to spatially explore the complex factors that create and amplify vulnerability. Working alongside health officials, they created maps that use sophisticated analysis to show policy and decision makers where to focus COVID-19 mitigation efforts and interventions.

The maps aimed to provide information on three main vulnerabilities within communities including where, in B.C., people are most vulnerable to developing COVID-19, where people are likely to experience challenges in accessing health care and where people are at risk of experiencing health-related secondary impacts of the pandemic.

This project underscores the important role geography can play in evaluating BC’s response to COVID-19 and informing ongoing responses and strategies for avoiding or mitigating subsequent transmissions.

More information on their research can be found on their website, www.pandemicgeographies.ca.