Today, the ‘first world problems’ that affect a young bioscience student in the United Kingdom are unlikely to be of much consequence to a retail worker in South America. However, if you were to take the time to think back just four years, you’d likely find common ground. As of September 2024, over twenty-four million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the United Kingdom - alongside approximately two hundred thousand associated deaths. In Brazil, these numbers climb to around thirty-eight million and over seven hundred thousand, respectively.
For almost every person across the developed world, the mere mention of “2020” evokes the thought of lockdown protocols, mobile vaccination units, temporary Nightingale hospitals constructed in conference centres and the halo-like image of the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus littered throughout each and every facet of the global media. For those dwelling in nations whose medical infrastructure is less robust, this picture is even more bleak - with Oxfam estimating that for every coronavirus-related death in a high-income country, four might have occurred in a middle- or lower-income nation. And, to make matters worse, this disparity in impact isn’t only medical. The poorest [forty percent of the global population has yet to economically recover](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/936001635880885713/pdf/Poverty-Median-Incomes-and-Inequality-in-2021-A-Diverging-Recovery.pdf?) from the damage sustained to local infrastructure, experiencing financial hardship unbeknownst to the vast majority of the Western world.
The collation of economic and personal data associated with the Hrishipara Daily Diaries Project offers valuable and dynamic insight into this pandemic-driven disparity. For years, microfinance expert Stuart Rutherford tracked the daily transactions of individuals dwelling in rural Bangladesh, wherein many households depend upon informal economies, with few available socioeconomic welfare initiatives - or safety nets - for the disenfranchised to fall back on. This data became increasingly significant during the coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the subsequent sudden and dramatic income loss, alongside the limitations imposed upon locals’ purchasing power. For example, Radhu, a middle-aged, widowed Hrishipara diarist, earned less than £40 between February and September 2020 - with her net earned income in April 2020 represented as a loss of around £3.50.
Whilst it might seem unlikely, the data produced by Rutherford and the Hrishipara diarists could prove exceedingly useful in both pandemic preparedness and pandemic prevention. Understanding the impact of pandemics on the economic behaviour - or, more informally, cash flow - of those living in those areas estimated to be most significantly affected could allow governments, microfinance institutions and researchers to produce policies and relevant initiatives to support these communities in a much more meaningful way, allowing these agents to derive their ideas from data directly produced by members of those vulnerable communities. As Rutherford (alongside Finnish economist Risto Rönkkö) later highlighted, the Hrishipara data can be used to identify several ‘points for improvement’ in the Bangladeshi economy - highlighting the need for food aid, readily available financial handouts/grants in times of crisis and increased support of the personal financial networks which allowed many rural families to remain ‘afloat’ throughout the pandemic.
Rutherford and Rönkkö might not have dedicated their careers to pandemic preparedness, but their work is nevertheless significant. As the following resources highlight, the oft-overlooked socioeconomic factors associated with pandemic prevention provide key opportunities to generate impact - regardless of whether you intend to study economics, research social trends or seek out job opportunities relating directly to biosecurity.
Mandatory Resources 🦠
A ScienceDirect Paper Exploring of the Impact of Covid on Bangladeshi Families
The Project Syndicate Article by Rutherford and Rönkkö Reflecting on the Hrishipara Daily Diaries
An ICL Report on the Economics of Pandemic Preparedness
A BPS Summary of the Importance of the Social Sciences in Public Health
A Discussion of the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on America’s Poorest
Optional Resources 🔍