Considering COVID-19 through the Lens of Hazard and Disaster Research

Abstract

Decades of social science research have taught us much about how individuals, groups, and communities respond to disasters. The findings of this research have helped inform emergency management practices, including disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us—researchers or not—have attempted or are attempting to make sense of what is going on around us. In this article, we assert that we need not examine the pandemic in a vacuum; rather, we can draw upon scholarly and practical sources to inform our thinking about this 21st century catastrophe. The pandemic has provided an “unfortunate opportunity” to revisit what we know about disaster phenomena, including catastrophes, and to reconsider the findings of research from over the years. Drawing upon academic research, media sources, and our own observations, we focus on the U.S. and employ disaster characteristics framework of (1) etiology or origins; (2) physical damage characteristics; (3) disaster phases or cycles; (4) vulnerability; (5) community impacts; and (6) individual impacts to examine perspectives about the ways in which the ongoing pandemic is both similar and dissimilar to conceptualizations about the social dimensions of hazards and disasters. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic is not merely a disaster; rather, it is a catastrophe.

Salir Adelante: Social capital and resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic in Argentina

“…Similar findings come from studies of response to natural disasters: where trust and connection among neighbors is already high, people are more likely to cooperate and collaborate, for example in mutual aid efforts, and participation in those efforts increases self-confidence in the ability to resolve problems and solidifies reciprocity and mutual understanding ( Aldrich and Meyer, 2015 ; Cutter et al, 2008 ; Klinenberg, 2002 ; Ritchie and Gill, 2021 ). During the Covid-19 pandemic, communities around the world have shown not only a capacity for self-organization and mutual support, but also (for the most part) calm, ingenuity, and an ability to adapt to uncertainties, as opposed to the panic, disorder, and mayhem that was widely feared in early 2020 ( Chen et al, 2021 ; Reicher and Bauld, 2021 ).…”

“…In spite of its global character, the pandemic has unfolded in different ways among countries, leading to wide recognition that national culture influences the success of pandemic control efforts, via mechanisms like deeply embedded social norms, prioritizing collective welfare over individual interests, that can be mobilized effectively in the pandemic crisis ( Gelfand et al, 2021 ). A growing body of research, both empirical and theoretical, suggests that societies with high levels of social cohesion have fared better during the pandemic ( Boyd and Davis, 2021 ; Drury et al, 2021 ; Jackson and Bradford, 2021 ; Reicher and Bauld, 2021 ; Reicher and Stott, 2020 ; Ritchie and Gill, 2021 ).…”

International Conference on Safe and Secure Society

“…It would be worthwhile to process the proposed algorithm directly into the software monitoring the patients, and in the event of an evacuation, patients would be automatically identified, immediately and without human intervention. Ritchie et al (2021) in his study offers an interesting assessment of the impacts of Covid and their impacts on the community and individual impacts in the addressed framework as disasters. From the point of view of the patient, relatives of patients and due to the sociological point of view, the evacuation of the medical facility and especially the anaesthesiology and resuscitation ward is also a disaster (not according to the definition of a disaster from crisis management).…”

Crisis management of authoritarian regimes in the digital era: the case of epidemic prevention and control in China

“…China's COVID-19 responses in different phases COVID-19 has validated its cataclysmic nature through its continuously mutating strains, multi-organ manifestations in humans (Higgins et al, 2021), and its long-term effects on society and individuals (Ritchie and Gill, 2021). Not only do catastrophes have devastating short-term physical and social impacts, but they also create enormous recuperation challenges and slow recovery processes that can greatly exceed the predictions of disaster plans (Tierney, 2019).…”