Tom Koch

Adjunct Professor

Department of Geography

Faculty of Arts

COVID-19 Research Area(s)

Research Specializations

As a multidisciplinary PhD (medicine, ethics/philosophy, geography) I have for some years worked on and written about infectious diseases, what promote or retard their expansion. This has included two major books--Disease Maps: Epidemics on the Ground (Univ. Chi. Press) and Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping and Medicine, expanded edition (MIT Press, 2017).

While I have written briefly on COVID-19 in the Globe and Mail, much of my work since January 26 has been in public service, back-grounding over 50 radio, newspaper, and TV reporters seeking an understanding of the virus and its effects. In addition, while I accrue data on Covid-19, specifics are still so uncertain--case mortality ratios vary widely country to country and province to province, for example, that I have delayed any work on its expansion. Issues of medical rationing, however, is a subject I will be engaging, however, as I continue with some teaching and ongoing research based on the 2009 Type-A Influenza pandemic.