Sociology of Infectious Disease

Three years following the World Health Organization’s formal declaration of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic we must remain mindful of the risk infectious, communicable, diseases (e.g., COVID-19, Measles, H5N1/Bird Flu) pose to the lives of millions across the globe. We must also recognize that this threat is distributed along socio-demographic and geopolitical inequities. Sociology’s emphasis on the impact of social structure through factors like race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, disability, and more, can help inform approaches to infectious disease, alleviating structural inequities present in public health prevention measures, the distribution of treatment resources (e.g., vaccines), and the provision of social and economic support during pandemic periods. This open paper presentation session encourages broad engagement with the sociology of infectious disease. Topics may include sociological/social-epidemiological assessments of the spread of infectious disease, explorations of the distribution of treatment and prevention resources, investigations of public/health policy related to infectious diseases, and examinations of any other topic relevant to the sociology of infectious disease (e.g., anti-vax/anti-mask rhetoric, the spread of medical misinformation, trust/distrust in scientific authorities like the CDC and WHO, and the surging of preventable diseases like Measles). This session aims to demonstrate the importance of approaching infectious disease from a sociological perspective, emphasizing the need to pay special attention to social factors that determine the distribution of, and exposure to, infectious disease and its consequences.