College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Aug 5;17(16):5635. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17165635.
Humans are living in an uncertain world, with daily risks confronting them from various low to high hazard events, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created its own set of unique risks. Not only has it caused a significant number of fatalities, but in combination with other hazard sources, it may pose a considerably higher multi-risk. In this paper, three hazardous events are studied through the lens of a concurring pandemic. Several low-probability high-risk scenarios are developed by the combination of a pandemic situation with a natural hazard (e.g., earthquakes or floods) or a complex emergency situation (e.g., mass protests or military movements). The hybrid impacts of these multi-hazard situations are then qualitatively studied on the healthcare systems, and their functionality loss. The paper also discusses the impact of pandemic's (long-term) temporal effects on the type and recovery duration from these adverse events. Finally, the concept of escape from a hazard, evacuation, sheltering and their potential conflict during a pandemic and a natural hazard is briefly reviewed. The findings show the cascading effects of these multi-hazard scenarios, which are unseen nearly in all risk legislation. This paper is an attempt to urge funding agencies to provide additional grants for multi-hazard risk research.
人类生活在一个不确定的世界中，每天都面临着从低到高各种危险事件的风险，而 COVID-19 大流行带来了一系列独特的风险。它不仅造成了大量的死亡，而且与其他危险源结合在一起，可能构成更高的多重风险。本文通过并发大流行的视角研究了三个危险事件。通过将大流行情况与自然灾害（如地震或洪水）或复杂紧急情况（如大规模抗议或军事行动）相结合，产生了几种低概率高风险的情况。然后定性地研究了这些多危险情况对医疗保健系统及其功能丧失的混合影响。本文还讨论了大流行（长期）时间效应对这些不利事件的类型和恢复持续时间的影响。最后，简要回顾了在大流行和自然灾害期间逃离危险、疏散、避难及其潜在冲突的概念。研究结果表明，这些多危险情况的级联效应在几乎所有风险法规中都看不到。本文旨在敦促资助机构为多危险风险研究提供额外的资助。
