Mutual Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Recent Earthquakes: A Scoping Review of the Lessons Learned

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to review the articles dealing with the mutual impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the recent earthquakes to elicit the various scopes of the lessons learned including the challenges, the successful measures, and the recommendations. Methods: To detect the relevant studies published between February 1, 2020, and June 9, 2021, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched. Having considered specific inclusion/exclusion criteria, 18 studies were included. Results: Seven major earthquakes have occurred concurrently or before the pandemic era in Albania, Croatia, Haiti, Great East Japan, Mexico, Nepal, and Utah. Thematic analysis revealed 5 themes for the “challenges” (management inefficiency, increased life-threatening, economic, socially related, and dual psychological challenges); 4 themes for the “efficient response measures” (health-care services measures, government measures, community-based cooperative activities, and disaster management response); and 3 major themes with 7 sub-themes for the “recommendations” including “the mitigation phase” (identifying probable natural disasters), “the preparedness phase” (preparing necessary equipment), and “the response phase” (mental care response measures, health-care-related COVID-19 measures, economic improvement measures, recognizing community-based capabilities, and government-related boosting measures). Conclusions: It is suggested that these scopes of the mutual impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the earthquakes be studied in systematic reviews.

Depression and stress levels in patients with different psychiatric disorders during concurrent early-phase COVID-19 pandemic and earthquake in Croatia

“…Despite some limitations, our findings expand the current knowledge on the impact of natural disasters on psychiatric patients, and highlight the vulnerability of psychiatric patients, particularly those with DAD disorders. However, among “dual psychological pressures” [ 22 ], earthquake appears to have more profound effects. Complete uncontrollability of earthquake may contribute to such fear-provoking effects.…”

“…At the end of the fourth week of the epidemic in Croatia, when the experts thought that nothing worse could happen, on 22 March 2020, the citizens of Zagreb were awakened by an earthquake of 5.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, followed the 57 aftershocks in the next 24 h, and the extensive property damage [ 20 ], with 27 people being severely injured, of which one died [ 21 ]. Mutual impacts of the earthquakes and the pandemic represent a dual psychological challenge [ 22 ]. Several studies in Croatia addressed the impact of both disasters, by comparing their effects between exposed and non-exposed groups.…”

“…Although the COVID-19 era has been associated with 7 major earthquakes so far [ 22 ], to best of our knowledge, there are no reports on the effects of concurrent earthquake and pandemic on psychiatric patients. Moreover, diverse diagnostic groups might react differently, depending on their existing pathology and coping mechanisms.…”

Research Trends in Resilience and Vulnerability Studies

“…Co-incidence of COVID-19 with other hazards, such as a dam failure, exposed existing vulnerabilities, as disasters could be seen as processes resulting from "economic, political, and social constructions" [5]. A scoping review also identified the co-incidence of physical hazards with the occurrence of COVID-19, with negative impacts on resilience and lifestyle, but noting the key roles of women in responding to disaster [40]. This speaks to the continuing importance of work on resilience that seeks to quantify benefit of proactively addressing risks, to reduce the consequences of failure and improve times to recovery [41].…”