Pandemics, vulnerability, and prevention: time to fundamentally reassess how we value and communicate risk?: CITIES, HEALTH and COVID-19: Initial reflections and future challenges

Citation

Black D, Bates G, Gibson A, Hatleskog E, Fichera E, Hatchard J, Md Nazmul H, Rosenberg G, Larkin C, Brierley R, Kidger J, Bondy K, Hickman M, Pain K & Hicks B (2021) Pandemics, vulnerability, and prevention: time to fundamentally reassess how we value and communicate risk?: CITIES, HEALTH and COVID-19: Initial reflections and future challenges. Cities & Health, 5 (sup1), pp. S93-S96. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2020.1811480

Abstract
For over a decade, pandemics have been on the UK National Risk Register as both the likeliest and most severe of threats. Non-infectious ‘lifestyle’ diseases were already crippling our healthcare services and our economy. COVID-19 has exposed two critical vulnerabilities: firstly, the UK’s failure to adequately assess and communicate the severity of non-communicable disease; secondly, the health inequalities across our society, due not least to the poor quality of our urban environments. This suggests a potentially disastrous lack of preventative action and risk management more generally, notably with regards to the existential risks from the climate and ecological crises.

Keywords
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; Urban Studies

Notes
Additional co-authors: Gabriel Scally; Arpana Verma; Neil Carhart; Paul Pilkington Icon; Alistair Hunt; Paddy Ireland.

Journal
Cities & Health: Volume 5, Issue sup1

People

Dr Krista Bondy

SL in Sustainable & Responsible Business, Management, Work and Organisation