Year: 2020
Type: editorial
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming the lives of human populations around the world and stimulating a global research effort aimed at understanding and addressing this disease. Over the last few weeks, I have heard from many of our colleagues who are initiating research or commenting on the COVID-19 pandemic. As human biologists, we are well positioned to address this biocultural health crisis, one that is laying bare and exacerbating long-standing social and health inequalities, and differentially impacting the World's most vulnerable populations (Rubino et al., 2020; van Dorn, Coonie, & Sabin, 2020; Wang & Tang, 2020; Yancy, 2020). I want the American Journal of Human Biology (AJHB) to play a central role in publishing and promoting the contributions that our discipline is making to confronting this global health problem. To that end, I have invited a group of prominent human biologists to offer “Commentaries” on different aspects of the pandemic including testing and diagnostics, modeling the spread of the virus, disparities in its impact, the fear and stigma associated with the disease, and how we can best disseminate our work to a broader audience. These papers will be published as a Special Section of the AJHB, currently scheduled for issue 5 of volume 32. Additionally, these contributions will become part of Wiley's freely accessible COVID-19 Resource Center. In association with the publication of this special section, our Social Media Editors, Cara Ocobock and Chris Lynn, are planning a Sausage of Science podcast with the contributing authors. Together, I believe that these papers and the podcast can serve as an important resource, highlighting the distinctive methods and perspectives that human biologists draw upon to better understand this pandemic. Moving forward, the AJHB will provide rapid review and publication of original research, reviews, and commentary on COVID-19. I hope that the AJHB will bring the human biology community together in sharing our research and discussing future directions for collaboration and engagement. I look forward to working with all of you as we confront the challenges ahead, and I welcome your input and suggestions on how we can best support you.
DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23430
Author: William R. Leonard
Institution: Northwestern University
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3022052762