Healthy Regions & Policies Lab

Social Inequity and SARS-CoV-2 Dynamics

Pamela P. Martinez, PhD.

Pamela P. Martinez PhD, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Friday, Nov 17th @Noon, via Zoom & In-Person at NHB 2049 in Urbana, IL

Join us for lunch, learning, and conversation at the next installment of the HEROP Speaker Series on Friday, November 17th at noon. Coffee and networking session to follow. For folks outside of the UIUC community, please join us via Zoom!

Dr. Martinez will present three projects investigating how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed significant disparities among different populations. First, she will discuss spatial variations in disease burden attributed to SARS-CoV-2 infections and deaths in Santiago, Chile. Then, she will show that vaccination trends exhibit social inequity at national and subnational levels and explore consequences for disease control. Finally, she will present some preliminary data on how host heterogeneity is crucial in disentangling the relative benefit of bivalent versus monovalent boosters for SARS-CoV-2 in the context of low- and middle-income countries.

Pamela P. Martinez, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Microbiology and Statistics at UIUC. Her research focuses on applying mathematical and computational tools to study the population dynamics of human infectious diseases. She is particularly interested in understanding the impact of social inequality on disease transmission.

In-Person or Virtual?

The in-person RSVP option is open to the University of Illinois community (students, staff, and faculty). We will have lunch for all attendees who RSVP by Wednesday @10a before the event.

A virtual option via Zoom is available for the public. To register for the Zoom option, please access the following link: go.illinois.edu/HEROP-Zoom-Nov17.

About the Series

The HEROP Speaker Series connects scholars, experts, and innovative thinkers to discuss different conceptual, methodological, and technological facets of public health to better understand the social determinants of health, and how place may influence outcomes. The Healthy Regions & Policies (HEROP) Lab integrates innovative GIScience, public health, and statistical approaches to explore, understand, and promote healthy places. We’re experts in the spatial & social determinants of health. We’re based out of the Dept of Geography & GIScience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.