COVID-19, beyond the virus: An outlook to the anatomy of a syndemic pan-disaster

Abstract

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Beyond the medical and scientific challenges to understand the SARS-CoV-2 virus as the cause of this disease and develop a vaccine to mitigate the effects of its spread, the ensuing crisis makes it urgent to reflect on the meaning of this pandemic as a consequence of human intervention on the planet. This article outlines a reference framework for understanding both the social construction of disaster risk and the disaster triggered by COVID-19, viewing the latter as a socio-biological hazard. The importance of addressing this issue from an integrated transdisciplinary perspective is highlighted in order to supplement the epidemiological approach documented by specialists on the subject. The current disaster triggered by COVID-19 does not leave behind apparent debris, rubble, and damage, contrasting with other disasters triggered by natural or socio-natural hazards (for instance, earthquakes or floods). However, its global consequences lead us to characterize it as a syndemic pan-disaster, that is, a multiscale disaster with global impact in a syndemic context. This involves an extreme disruption of the functioning of society with adverse social, economic, cultural, political, and institutional consequences caused by multiple public health issues exacerbated by the particular susceptibility of people to the virus, exposure to individual and collective contagion, and preexisting vulnerability conditions in society. To conclude, some final considerations are put forward aimed at framing transformation efforts towards integrated disaster risk management in the current risk society.