Research notes

Browse some of the latest studies on the social impacts of (and responses to) COVID-19

The International Public Policy Observatory holds weekly ‘newsroom’ meetings at which all of our UK and global partner organisations can highlight notable new research relating to the social impacts of, and policy responses to, COVID-19. A selection of these ‘research notes’ can be browsed below.

And if you are an academic working on COVID-related social sciences research that spans any of our broad topic areas (education, mental health, Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, vulnerable communities, housing, care and online life), we’re equally keen to hear about your work. Simply fill in this form and we will be in touch soon.

1. 

   Social capital’s impact on COVID-19 outcomes at local levels

   August 17, 2022

   • covid recovery

   • place and spatial inequality

   Over the past thirty years, disaster scholars have highlighted that communities with stronger social infrastructure—including social ties that enable trust, mutual aid, and collective action—tend to respond to and recover better from crises. However, comprehensive measurements of social capital across communities have been rare. This study adapts Kyne and Aldrich’s (Risk Hazards Crisis Public Policy 11, 61–86, 2020) county-level social capital index to the census-tract level, generating social capital indices from 2011 to 2018 at the census-tract, zipcode, and county subdivision levels. To demonstrate their usefulness to disaster planners, public health experts,…

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2. 

   The societal responses to COVID-19: Evidence from the G7 countries

   July 22, 2022

   • Social capital

   This paper provides a picture of how societies in the G7 countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our point of departure is to examine the effects of the pandemic in terms of four fundamental normative sources for well-being: Solidarity (S; willingness for social cooperation), Agency (A; empowerment to shape one’s prospects through one’s own efforts), GDP (G), and Environmental Performance (E)—SAGE for short. The normative foundations of SAGE are communitarianism, classical liberalism, materialistic utilitarianism, and ecoethics. We find that although G and E responded predictably and uniformly to the pandemic (such…

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3. 

   COVID-19: How well-protected was the medical profession?

   May 26, 2022

   The BMA has launched a review into the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic – from the impact on the medical profession to the NHS and social care systems and public health. This is the first of five BMA reports, each with a particular focus on the pandemic response. The report finds that the wider health and public health systems entered the pandemic under-resourced. Before the pandemic, health systems across the UK were operating in an environment of scarcity; general health spending was below that of comparable countries and there were chronic…

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4. 

   ‘It was brutal. It still is’: a qualitative analysis of the challenges of bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic reported in two national surveys

   May 19, 2022

   • mental health

   Anna Torrens-Burton (Cardiff University School of Medicine), Silvia Goss, Eileen Sutton and colleagues examine the difficulties faced by people bereaved during the pandemic (April 2022) Background The COVID-19 pandemic has been a devastating, mass bereavement event characterised by high levels of disruption to end-of-life, grieving and coping processes. Quantitative evidence is emerging on the effects of the pandemic on grief outcomes, but rich qualitative evidence on the lived experiences of people bereaved during these times is lacking. Methods We analysed qualitative data from two independent UK-wide online surveys to describe the experiences…

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