The impact of ethnic segregation on neighbourhood-level social distancing in the United States amid the early outbreak of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been argued to be the ‘great equaliser’, but, in fact, ethnically and racially segregated communities are bearing a disproportionate burden from the disease. Although more people have been infected and died from the disease among these minority communities, still fewer people in these communities are complying with the suggested public health measures like social distancing. The factors contributing to these ramifications remain a long-lasting debate, in part due to the contested theories between ethnic stratification and ethnic community. To offer empirical evidence to this theoretical debate, we tracked public social-distancing behaviours from mobile phone devices across urban census tracts in the United States and employed a difference-in-difference model to examine the impact of racial/ethnic segregation on these behaviours. Specifically, we focussed on non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic communities at the neighbourhood level from three principal dimensions of ethnic segregation, namely, evenness, exposure, and concentration. Our results suggest that (1) the high ethnic diversity index can decrease social-distancing behaviours and (2) the high dissimilarity between ethnic minorities and non-Hispanic Whites can increase social-distancing behavior; (3) the high interaction index can decrease social-distancing behaviours; and (4) the high concentration of ethnic minorities can increase travel distance and non-home time but decrease work behaviours. The findings of this study shed new light on public health behaviours among minority communities and offer empirical knowledge for policymakers to better inform just and evidence-based public health orders.

Green space justice amid COVID-19: Unequal access to public green space across American neighborhoods

“…It could also be that blacks have concern that they would be discriminated in large parks where the white people are interested in Gobster ( 28 ). That is, blacks might not choose to visit a larger but farther park for a lower risk of infection because they generally show less trust in science during this particular pandemic ( 40 , 67 ).…”

Assessing Response Readiness to Health Emergencies: A Spatial Evaluation of Health and Socio-Economic Justice in Pakistan

“…While on the COVID19 is considered as a “great equalizer”, but, in reality, segregated communities in terms of socio-economic and health facilities bear a disproportionate burden (Zhai et al, 2021 ). To mitigate such segregation, this study provides spatial heterogeneities in both, societal conditions and provisioning of health facilities, aspects—highlighting the inequity among different regions.…”

“…Similarly, socio-economic capitals are driven by population, education, economic situations, and access to basic amenities such as transportation among many others. In a similar fashion, the readiness of communities to disruptive events such as COVID-19 depends upon several factors primarily including but not limited to the health system and socio-economic conditions (Zhai & Yue, 2021 ; Zhai et al, 2021 ). While better health system (HS) and good societal conditions (SC, socio-economic status) can prepare communities well to effectively respond to pandemics such as COVID19, the higher vulnerability and poor health system can put them at higher risk resulting in severe consequences.…”

“…Another neighboring country, Iran, has also been a hotspot of the pandemic, which further pressurizes Pakistan. While studies on COVID-related vulnerabilities are being conducted for effective decision-making (Zhai et al, 2021 ; Zhai & Yue, 2021 ), such investigations are rare to find in Pakistan. In addition, to date, the readiness of Pakistan to such bio-hazards and pandemics has not been assessed particularly through an integrated health-system-societal-conditions perspective.…”

What Makes People Bind Together?’: Social Cohesion Factors in the People of Pekanbaru Towards Madani Civilization

“…Instead of maintaining people's unity in the face of a pandemic, the "comfortable" community's−the upper-middle class−concern for the surrounding has actually decreased. Until now, after the pandemic curve has flattened, people's intention to participate in community social activities has not fully recovered, even creating the wider gap between the fortunate and the unfortunate group (Li, Huang, & Xu, 2022;MIT, 2020;Zhai, Fu, & Peng, 2021).…”