Abstract: The global emergence of COVID-19 is a reminder that our societies are going through massive and recurring infectious diseases pandemics. This statement might appear naïve, but forty years ago researchers thought that infectious diseases were controlled. It is important to reconnect the global spread of these diseases with the social and economic evolution of our societies – the intensification of connectivity between territories worldwide is clearly one of the factors that have contributed to our increasing vulnerabilities toward emerging diseases.

The challenges of examining mobility data at a local scale, notably in countries like India, is a serious issue for producing credible research that will support policy solutions. Preliminary results from ongoing research using social network data could be a first step to change this.

This presentation will begin with conceptualising emerging diseases such as COVID-19 and will then offer examples of dengue and urban malaria geography at urban scale, by way of learning from previous epidemics of recurring emerging diseases to structure our thoughts toward the recent COVID-19 pandemic. What is the role of space and social and economic environments in the geography of emerging diseases? How can we link mobility and virus diffusion at an urban scale?

After having presented observational epidemiology, we will finally introduce a simulation model of COVID-19 diffusion that examines the mobility pattern observed in India and Colombia. This model is being developed in collaboration with Institut Pasteur Paris, Centre for Policy Research, University of Liverpool, and University Paris 1.

Speaker: Olivier Telle is an urban health geographer at the Centre National de la Recherche Française (CNRS) and the Centre de Sciences Humaines, and a Visiting Fellow at Centre for Policy Research. His research aims to better understand how socio-spatial dynamics of cities are connected to epidemic diffusion in India (Delhi), as well as Asia (Vientiane, Bangkok). By integrating human mobility, socio-economic, and governance disparities, Olivier aims to reduce disease diffusion within and between cities. He is particularly interested in reconnecting sanitation with urban health. Before being recruited by CNRS, Olivier conducted a 3 years postdoc at Institut Pasteur Paris (Functional Genetic of Infectious diseases).