Sustainable social development promotes COVID-19 pandemic control

• Published in: iScience Vol. 25; no. 7; p. 104592
• Main Authors: Feng, Shilan, Zhai, Yingjia, Wei, Wendong, Tan, Ya, Geng, Yong, Nie, Weiye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 15-07-2022; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Energy sustainability; Social sciences; Sustainability aspects of food production; Applied sciences; Energy sustainability; Social sciences; Sustainability aspects of food production
• ISSN: 2589-0042; 2589-0042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104592

The rapid spread of COVID-19 had a negative impact on public health and economic recovery worldwide. There is a large and growing literature on pandemic prevention and control. However, these existing studies seldom focus on the role of sustainable social development in this process. By setting specifications of fixed-effect models based on the score data of sustainable development goals (SDG) and infection case data from 257 Chinese cities, we evaluate the positive effect of sustainable social development on pandemic control. Our results show that sustainable social development leads to a remarkable improvement in pandemic prevention and control, especially for SDG4 (Quality Education) and SDG5 (Gender Equality). Significant positive effects of sustainable social development still exist in the post-pandemic era. This study highlights the importance of promoting social SDGs by linking them with pandemic prevention and control and suggests region-specific policies based on the heterogeneous analysis results.
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•This study highlights the importance of social SDGs by linking them to pandemic control•Social SDGs improve pandemic prevention and control in two pandemic development stages•Cities with better education/gender equality performed better in pandemic control•The impact of social SDGs on pandemic control is heterogeneous in different regions
Applied sciences; Energy sustainability; Sustainability aspects of food production; Social sciences