The Inequality of COVID-19

The Inequality of COVID-19: Immediate Health Communication, Governance and Response in Four Indigenous Regions is an extraordinary interdisciplinary effort offering insights needed to underscore the problems of disjointed communications during a global pandemic. The authors explore the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and other immediate and longer-term guidelines, directives, and general policy initiatives. The cases document implications of the failure of various governments to establish robust policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in a sample of advanced and low-income countries. Because the global institutions charged with managing the COVID-19 crisis did not work in harmony, the results have been devastating.

The four Indigenous communities selected are the Navajo of the southwest United States, Siddi people in India, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the Maasai in East Africa. Although these are all diverse communities, spread across different continents, their base economic oppression and survival from colonial violence is a common denominator in hypothesizing the public health management outcomes. However, the research reveals that national leadership and other incoherent pandemic mitigation policies account for a significant amount of the devastation caused in these communities. This realization is, an important area to explore, and the study establishes an initial attempt to make sense of how, and under what circumstances marginalized groups can suffer most from global pandemics. This study offers opportunities for necessary investigations of multiple layers of inequality, which can lead to future policy efforts to support strength and healing for all during global crisis like COVID-19.

• Explores the examples of pandemic mitigation practices in Indigenous communities
• Provides case studies of importance of ICTs in health care in 21st century pandemic management protocols
• Presents real policy data collected from different continents from the early days of through the first year of the global pandemic