Guest editorialA pandemic of global inequality: a special issue on how COVID-19 deepened social inequalities on a global scale

Let these papers serve as a guide for scholars and policymakers in understanding how inequality and discrimination factor into public health measures that rely on social behaviour in a time when vaccines and medicinal therapies were unavailable for all. [...]Moldes-Anaya, Koff, Da Porto and Lipovina conclude the special issue with a tool to approach risk, equity and public health policy. May it be a reminder that when designing research or a policy to understand that drastic disruptions for public health measures are not just about working to quell a virus but also about entrenching existing inequalities, creating new ones or reimagining new possibilities that do not intentionally leave so many people excluded from assurances of well-being.

COVID‐19 stigma in New Zealand: Are we really a ‘team’ of five million?

The New Zealand government has used public health ordinances to impose restrictions on immigration, movement and social gatherings for managing the pandemic. Yet, this response led to unintended consequences, in particular the stigmatisation of some communities and professions as being ‘diseased’. Such discourse ran contrary to the government's own, and very public assertions, that New Zealand was a ‘team of five million’ who should ‘be kind’ to each other. Here, we position stigma as a form of slow violence, which during the pandemic has exploited existing cracks in social cohesion. We then employ an ethics of care approach to suggest some practical responses to healing the rifts created by COVID‐19. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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 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 . (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Covid-19 in New Zealand and the Pacific: implications for children and families

The experience of Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2020 has been strongly shaped by a narrative emanating from a robust partnership between politicians and public health experts. This narrative, as we illustrate in the sections below, treads a careful line between hard and soft responses. To elaborate, enacting policy such as closing borders and requiring ‘lockdown’ was swift and firm but was accompanied by an attempt to develop a disposition of care and empathy towards the public. While there has been hardship for some families, the soft messaging has, we argue, led to aspects of the response that have been decidedly child-friendly. At the regional scale, border closures have impacted heavily on Pacific Island families, separating families as parents have been unable to return to their home islands and through the loss of economic opportunities associated with seasonal work and in local - often tourism dominated economies. In a COVID-era the future looks uncertain for children both within New Zealand and in the wider Pacific realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Children's Geographies is the property of Routledge 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.)