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American Inequality Meets COVID-19: Uneven Spread of the Disease across Communities

Author

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  • Wei Zhai
  • Mengyang Liu
  • Xinyu Fu
  • Zhong-Ren Peng

Abstract

The United States is bearing the brunt of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The spatially uneven viral spread and community inequality will jointly bring about worse consequences. The combined effects on U.S. communities remain unclear, however. Given spatially heterogeneous compliance with the stay-at-home orders and the varying timing of local directives, the uneven spread should be further examined. In this research, we first exploited county-level data to study the spatiotemporal pattern of viral transmission by a Bayesian approach. We then examined the uneven effects of socioeconomic and demographic variables on viral transmission across U.S. counties using geographically weighted panel regressions. Our results show that, first, the early epicenters shifted from the West Coast to the East Coast with a transmission rate of over 2.5 and continued to expand into Midwestern states in May, although the spread in the majority of counties had been greatly mitigated since the middle of April. Second, increased stay-at-home behaviors reduced the transmission of COVID-19 across the United States. The effects of socioeconomic and demographic variables varied from place to place, except that high household income was more consistently associated with a reduction in viral transmission. Finally, when the order was lifted, high household income was found to increase the viral transmission in the Midwestern United States and the high unemployment rate contributed to the viral spread in the Western United States. The knowledge obtained from this study can offer new insights for the containment actions of COVID-19.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Zhai & Mengyang Liu & Xinyu Fu & Zhong-Ren Peng, 2021. "American Inequality Meets COVID-19: Uneven Spread of the Disease across Communities," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 111(7), pages 2023-2043, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:raagxx:v:111:y:2021:i:7:p:2023-2043
    DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1866489
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    Cited by:

    1. Sarah L. Jackson & Sahar Derakhshan & Leah Blackwood & Logan Lee & Qian Huang & Margot Habets & Susan L. Cutter, 2021. "Spatial Disparities of COVID-19 Cases and Fatalities in United States Counties," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-21, August.
    2. Jianwei Huang & Mei-Po Kwan, 2022. "Examining the Influence of Housing Conditions and Daily Greenspace Exposure on People’s Perceived COVID-19 Risk and Distress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Nushrat Nazia & Zahid Ahmad Butt & Melanie Lyn Bedard & Wang-Choi Tang & Hibah Sehar & Jane Law, 2022. "Methods Used in the Spatial and Spatiotemporal Analysis of COVID-19 Epidemiology: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-28, July.
    4. Mercer, Katie Holstein & Mollborn, Stefanie, 2023. "Distinction through distancing: Norm formation and enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    5. Qingfang Wang & Wei Kang, 2023. "Small businesses and government assistance during COVID-19: Evidence from the paycheck protection program in the U.S," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(8), pages 2147-2165, November.

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