This collection sheds light on the cascading crises engendered by COVID-19 on many aspects of society from the economic to the digital This issue of the American Behavioral Scientist brings together scholarship examining the various ways in which many vulnerable populations are bearing a disproportionate share of the costs of COVID-19 As the articles bring to light, the unequal effects of the pandemic are reverberating along preexisting fault lines and creating new ones In the economic realm, the rental market emerges during the pandemic as an economic arena of heightened socio-spatial and racial/ethnic disparities Financial markets are another domain where market mechanisms mask the exploitative relationships between the economically vulnerable and powerful actors Turning to gender inequalities, across national contexts, women represent an increasingly vulnerable segment of the labor market as the pandemic piles on new burdens of remote schooling and caregiving despite a variety of policy initiatives Moving from the economic to the digital domain, we see how people with disabilities employ social media to mitigate increased vulnerability stemming from COVID-19 Finally, the key effects of digital vulnerability are heightened because the digitally disadvantaged experience not only informational inequalities but also aggravated bodily manifestations of stress or anxiety related to the pandemic Each article contributes to our understanding of the larger mosaic of inequality that is being exacerbated by the pandemic By drawing connections between these different aspects of the social world and the effects of COVID-19, this issue of American Behavioral Scientist advances our understanding of the far-reaching ramifications of the pandemic on vulnerable members of society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of American Behavioral Scientist is the property of Sage Publications Inc and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )
An Unequal Pandemic: Vulnerability and COVID-19