Geospatial Health in the Context of Privilege and Cost: Determining Characteristic Based on Travel to Leisure and Protest Locations During COVID-19 Mitigation

Objectives: Determine community characteristics, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on travel to the popular leisure destination, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, and racial-justice protest locations in St. Louis, Missouri during key dates in May 2020. Methods: Travel data was acquired from a U.S. marketing firm and consisted of anonymized and aggregated device GPS data. Sample inclusion was limited to residents of census-tracts within the City and County of St. Louis and St. Charles County, Missouri (n=384). Tract characteristics were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. Results: Tracts with higher proportion of residents traveling to protest locations were significantly more likely to have higher proportion of: non-white residents, residents with no health insurance, and residents working in healthcare support and food service. Conclusions: Based on characteristics, residents from tracts that had higher significant travel to protests are likely to be more adversely affected by the CoVID-19 pandemic. Further, significant differences in community characteristics highlight the racial inequities identified in CoVID-19 transmission. Policy Implications: Findings suggest it may be advantageous for local CoVID-19 mitigation efforts to adapt or collaborate with local racial-justice protesters.