The link between internet access and COVID-19 deaths
The pandemic gave public health researchers a broader window into what internet access can mean for personal wellbeing.
The internet connects us to a world of information that can help direct us in our everyday lives. It can inform us about our neighborhoods and cities, about the ways we are treating each other, and of any threats to our immediate wellbeing.
A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a strong tie between COVID-19 deaths and internet access, leaving questions about how the internet should be subsidized in our lives.
“It really confirmed what a lot of us were becoming very suspicious of that internet had its own, sort of, power in this dynamic.” — Keren Landman, Vox journalist
Listen: The importance of the internet to our public health and personal well-being.
Guest
Keren Landman is a journalist, epidemiologist and physician who covers health and medicine for Vox. A recent piece by her explores the relationship between public health and internet access. Previously, it was believed to be a symptom of other social determinants of health, rather than important as its own variable.
“It really confirmed what a lot of us were becoming very suspicious of,” says Landman, “that internet had its own, sort of, power in this dynamic,” she says.
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