As witnessed under COVID-19, pandemics are among the largest threats to the global health and economy. The core idea of PANSOC is that pandemics are and have always been more than just a medical problem. Epidemiology and impact of pandemics have been profoundly shaped by socioeconomic status and ethnic background, thus affecting who falls ill, who dies, and who survives.

The overarching aim of PANSOC is to bridge our research projects on pandemics and socioeconomic status, and send a Centre of Excellence application to the Norwegian Research Council in 2025.

The primary objective of PANSOC is to map the socially vulnerable risk groups in order to understand how social and ethnic disparities in exposure, susceptibility and access to care lead to social and ethnic disparities in (non) pharmaceutical interventions, pandemic outcomes as well as health and labour market consequences.

The secondary objective of PANSOC is to aid policymakers in developing targeted interventions by social and ethnic status in addition to medical indications, in order to reach the WHO goal of 75 percent vaccine coverage during seasonal influenza, to reduce ethnic and social disparities, to save lives, reduce social and economic suffering as well as medical costs during epidemics and pandemics. 

The aims and objectives of PANSOC are therefore also closely aligned with three of the UN SDGs of reducing social inequalities (goal 10), eradication of poverty (goal 1) and ensuring good health for all (goal 3).