New Publication: COVID-19 Impacts, Vaccination, and Underreporting in Chiapas, Mexico
Four PANSOC-affiliated researchers have just published a new open access paper in BMC Infectious Diseases examining the COVID-19 pandemic in Chiapas, Mexico, a region with a large indigenous population.
Elienai Joaquin-Damas, PANSOC collaborator during the 2022–23 Centre for Advanced Study project on Indigenous Peoples and Pandemics, is the lead author of this study that uses survey data from secondary school students to capture the prevalence of COVID-19 infections, deaths, and vaccine uptake. Centre leader Svenn-Erik Mamelund, postdoc Ben Schneider, and researcher Gerardo Chowell also contributed to the paper.
The study suggests substantial underreporting of COVID-related deaths in Chiapas: while national statistics reported just 212 cases and one death in the municipality of Chamula, which had a population of more than 75,000, 14% of survey respondents reported at least one COVID infection for themselves, and 4.7% reported at least one death in their household. Compounding these findings, at the time of the survey in September-October 2023 almost 80% of respondents had not received a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The study suggests that despite increased attention to indigenous communities in public health research and practice in recent decades, large disparities remain both in data collection and policies to reduce health inequalities.