The Future of Long Covid: A Threatcasting Approach

Melissa Smallwood (M.S. 2021, M.A. 2016) is a Science and Technology Policy researcher with a background in neuroscience, psychology, social science, and disability studies. She is interested in how disability and healthcare justice issues intersect with emerging technologies, political trends, and dominant paradigms in medicine and academia. Prior to the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smallwood was interested in the tensions between patient advocate groups and the medical establishment--a subject with which many more people are now being forced to grapple.

Smallwood was introduced to the Threatcasting methodology through Brian David Johnson's lab at Arizona State University, where she worked with a group to forecast a range of potential outcomes of COVID-19 and to apply the lessons of the pandemic to anticipatory policy-making moving forward. She decided to use this approach to specifically look at Long COVID--an under-reported public health issue with massive societal implications. The findings of this project form the basis for Smallwood's debut book, The Future of Long COVID. Smallwood currently works with software that supports the development of emerging technologies, as well as being an independent researcher and activist focused on Long COVID, COVID mitigation, and other justice issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

梅莉莎·史莫伍德（Melissa Smallwood，碩士 2021，碩士 2016）是一位科學與技術政策研究者，擁有神經科學、心理學、社會科學和殘障研究的背景。她對殘障與醫療正義議題如何與新興技術、政治趨勢及醫學和學術界的主流範式交織感興趣。在全球因 COVID-19 疫情而產生的干擾之前，史莫伍德對患者倡導團體與醫療體系之間的緊張關係感到關注，這是一個現在許多人被迫面對的議題。

史莫伍德透過亞利桑那州立大學的布萊恩·大衛·約翰遜（Brian David Johnson）實驗室接觸到 Threatcasting 方法論，她與一個團隊合作，預測 COVID-19 的一系列潛在結果，並將疫情的教訓應用於未來的預期政策制定。她決定使用這種方法專門研究長期 COVID——這是一個被低估的公共衛生問題，對社會有著巨大的影響。這個項目的研究結果構成了史莫伍德的首部著作《長期 COVID 的未來》（The Future of Long COVID）的基礎。史莫伍德目前從事支持新興技術發展的軟體工作，同時也是一名獨立研究者和活動家，專注於長期 COVID、COVID 減緩及其他因 COVID-19 疫情而突顯的正義議題。