We develop questions for a COVID-19 research agenda from the anthropology of disasters to study the production of pandemic as a feature of the normatively accepted societal state of affairs. We encourage an applied study of the pandemic that recognizes it as the product of connections between people, with their social systems, nonhumans, and the material world more broadly, with attention to root causes, (post)colonialism and capitalism, multispecies networks, the politics of knowledge, gifts and mutual aid, and the work of recovery.

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Summary In 16 months over 35,400 cases of Zika virus infection have been confirmed in Puerto Rico. This represents 85% of all cases reported on the United States of America and its territories. Zika epidemic is exposing the profound failure of socioeconomic policies, as well as of the protection of sexual and reproductive health rights in Puerto Rico. Considering high poverty rates, high levels of sexuality-related stigma, poor quality sex education, limited access to contraception, and limited participation in the allocation of resources for prevention; it is unreasonable to focus public health efforts to prevent Zika virus infection to vector control. The allocation and equitable management of resources for research and intervention are required in order to understand and address barriers and facilitators for prevention at the individual, social, and structural levels. Further, the impact of efforts to tackle the social determinants of Zika virus epidemic in the island should be assessed.

Puerto Rico is experiencing a public health crisis driven by effects and processes of US colonialism in the archipelago, such as the exclusionary application of federal health policy, an exodus of health care professionals, and the long-term effects of unequal distribution of health care funding in the unincorporated territories. Compound effects of multiple disasters, including Hurricane María, repeated earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as relentless privatization and fragmentation of the health care system, have led to very poor health outcomes. Puerto Rico's case clearly shows the negative effects of colonialism on public health. This article specifies what decolonization requires from a public health standpoint to promote health equity. Public Health in Puerto RicoPuerto Rico has been experiencing a public health crisis since the 1990s, driven by limited resource allocation for preventive health care for residents of Puerto Rico, austerity policies in response to a massive debt crisis, and primary care privatization. 1,2,3 Compared to other jurisdictions in the United States, Puerto Rico has worse health outcomes, such as higher rates of preterm births, asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, food insecurity, incarceration, and homelessness, among other outcomes. 4,5 Colonialism is literally killing Puerto Ricans.