疫情蔓延與弱勢族群防疫議題

The Spread of the Epidemic Among Vulnerable Groups and Related Epidemic Prevention Issues

嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎（COVID-19）大流行凸顯了長期存在的社會不平等現象，對不同的社區、族群和個人造成了不利的健康、經濟和社會後果，尤其是缺乏健康和社會資源、收入較低、偏遠地區和疾病防治意識不強等的弱勢群體更容易感染（McDonald, 2022; Mein, 2020; Moghanibashi-Mansourieh, 2021）。The Lancet期刊編者群（2020）指出，疫情期間的弱勢群體是指容易暴露在傳染性疾病風險中的人，且弱勢群體中的人是呈現動態變化。在大流行開始時不被認為是弱勢者但後來可能會變得弱勢，如:突然失去收入或無法獲得社會支持會產生嚴重後果者；因此在COVID-19大流行中，弱勢群體不僅是老年人、嬰幼兒、健康狀況不佳者、無家可歸者或住房不足的人，還包括來自不同社會經濟群體的人，他們可能在經濟、精神或身體上難以應對危機。此外，因應疫情蔓延阻隔，全球各國的各級學校亦採取遠距線上同步或非同步授課方式以避免學校關閉使學生與學童的學習因疫情而中斷（Dreesen et al., 2020）。然而，弱勢族群學生在線上學習設備的可及性（accessibility）、可利用性（availability）、可接受性（acceptabili¬ty）、適用性（applicability）等議題值得主管機關深思。

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the adverse health, economic and social consequences of longstanding social inequality on various communi¬ties, groups, and individuals. Because they lack suf¬ficient access to health and social resources, vulner¬able groups affected by lower incomes, geographic remoteness, and/or low awareness of disease preven¬tion and control measures are more susceptible to infection (McDonald, 2022; Mein, 2020; Moghani¬bashi-Mansourieh, 2021). According to The Lancet (2020) editorial board, vulnerable groups are defined as segments of the population disproportionately exposed to risk. People not considered vulnerable at the start of the pandemic may become vulnerable af¬terward due to pandemic-related effects such as loss of income and lack of access to social support. Thus, during the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable groups include not only traditionally vulnerable populations (e.g., older adults, infants, immuno-compromised individuals) but socioeconomic groups that may be financially, mentally, or physically struggling to cope. In addition, schools of all levels around the world have adopted remote online synchronous or asynchronous teaching methods to avoid pandem¬ic-related school closures and interruptions in stu¬dent learning (Dreesen et al., 2020).