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Using Big Data to Understand Religiosity as a Risk for COVID-19
More religious people are at elevated risk of spreading and dying from COVID-19. Here’s why.
If we hope to “flatten the curve” and prevent the United States from becoming the world leader in COVID-19 death rates, we must examine the psychology of risk. We already know that being older is a big risk factor for dying of COVID-19. And we already know that COVID-19 is disproportionately harming poor and densely populated communities. Consider Detroit, Michigan and New York City. Then puzzle over Albany, Georgia. This Georgia city of only 75,000 people has been hit hard by COVID-19. A main reason why seems to be a couple of well-attended funerals. I grew up in Georgia, and I know that funerals in Georgia mean lots and lots of hugging. Of course, hugging is the direct opposite of social distancing. COVID-19 doesn’t ask why you were hugging. It just uses this as a chance to spread.
I suspect that the well-intended but tragic hugging in Albany, Georgia sprang partly from religiosity. Georgia is one of the most religious states in the nation. When I lived there, for the first 22 years of my life, we proudly called our state the “buckle of the Bible belt” — even though neighboring Alabama probably had better claim to the title. But is religiosity really a risk factor for contracting and spreading COVID-19? All else being…
