Overdue report on Covid lecture during 2021 lockdown.

GA lecture: Geographies of Covid: 7pm March 9th, 2021

On March 9th, we continued with live online delivery of material with an excellent talk by Prof. Rich Harris (School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol). The talk used elegant, interactive graphics and up-to-date data, focussing on the geography of Covid-19.

Before introducing his colleague, Prof. David Richards used the opportunity to provide a local backdrop to the theme of geographies of health and the important role played by William Budd (Clifton, Bristol) on matters related to disease and sanitation in the 19th century. Budd recognised the co-location of poor water supplies and cholera incidence. The School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, is located in buildings that used to house the Bristol Medical School and Budd is remembered (by initials WB) in some of the decoration therein.

Professor Harris considered the fundamental concept in geographical studies — spatial (or geographical) variation and using maps to reveal it. Geographies of Covid in English towns and cities represents an excellent example of how that some neighbourhoods have been harder hit than others. Rich questioned “Is this just bad luck or can it be linked to the characteristics of those neighbourhoods, such as their ethnic composition?” and “If it can, then why?”

The data dashboard used can be found at https://geography.shinyapps.io/covidmaps/

For further information/links see Resources.