It’s through the Cracks That the Light Shines: Opportunities and Challenges for Improving Health Equity during COVID-19

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic does not affect people equally and has highlighted – and widened - health inequities and unequal access to social determinants of health.  We may be in the same storm but we are definitely not all in the same boat. As the pandemic has overwhelmed our health, social and economic systems, some communities and individuals have higher risks of contracting and transmitting COVI-19, greater social consequences of public health measures (e.g. lockdown), and significantly worse physical, social and emotional health outcomes. These impacts interact and can compound risks, which further compound inequities. 

In starkly illuminating health inequities or ‘cracks’ in our health, social and economic systems, the COVID-19 pandemic also offers an urgent and profound opportunity to identify, understand and develop solutions for a better future going forward – including to be better prepared when the next outbreak or pandemic occurs.

We invite quality articles which examine these ‘cracks where the light is showing through’ - opportunities and challenges for improving health equity during COVID-19. We are particularly interested in empirical articles that document the engagement of impacted communities in response to the current crisis, across community and system level, structural change, in order to achieve health equity.

Prof. Dr. Cath Chamberlain
Dr. Simon Graham
Prof. Dr. Naomi Priest
Guest Editors

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