Fine-grained location data gleaned from mobile phones shows that people living in less affluent neighborhoods spent less time at home during the early lockdown and first several months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Credit: University of Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Fine-grained location data gleaned from mobile phones shows that people living in less affluent neighborhoods spent less time at home during the early lockdown and first several months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Researchers tracked data from millions of mobile phone users in the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Their findings contribute to a growing body of research suggesting that low-wage earners a vulnerable group already at greater risk for contracting COVID-19 could not afford to comply with stay-at-home orders or worked in professions that prohibited working from home. Our study reveals the luxury nature of stay-at-home orders, which lower income groups cannot afford to comply with, said Xiao Huang, assistant professor of geosciences in the Fulbright College or Arts and Sciences. This disparity exacerbates long-standing social inequality issues present in the United States, potentially causing unequal exposure to a