Tinotenda Taruvinga Successfully Defends PhD on COVID-19’s Indirect Effects

We are delighted to share the news that Tinotenda Taruvinga has passed his PhD viva today, subject to minor corrections. Please join us in congratulating him on an excellent thesis exploring the indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health workforce, maternal and child health services, and wider lives and livelihoods in Zimbabwe.

Supervisors: Justin Dixon and Katharina Kranzer

Abstract: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as the most significant health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic. The World Health Organization classified it as both a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and a pandemic, leading to a highly securitised response that justified extraordinary mitigation measures such as lockdowns. While the virus itself claimed millions of lives, its indirect effects—particularly on the economy, healthcare access, and livelihoods—arguably caused greater harm than the virus itself. Despite growing accounts of these impacts, there remains a lack of comprehensive, multimethod studies examining these issues within the specific historical, political, and social contexts of low- and middle-income countries.

This PhD thesis uses a mixed-methods approach, drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods, to examine the indirect effects of the pandemic in the Zimbabwean context. Grounded in a social constructivist worldview, the research explores these indirect impacts from three primary perspectives: the health workforce, particularly during the period when healthcare workers were prioritised as recipients of novel vaccines; the provision and uptake of maternal and child health (MCH) services; and the pandemic’s impact on wider healthcare access and household livelihoods.

Together, these case studies capture marginalised perspectives of those most adversely affected by externally designed, “cut-and-paste” interventions intended to protect wealthier and older populations.

Despite weak healthcare systems, widespread misinformation, and limited vaccine options, the majority of healthcare workers (97%) opted to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This high uptake reflects a relatively well-organised information campaign, perceptions of occupational risk, and quasi-mandatory vaccination policies. While this represents a success within Zimbabwe’s pandemic response, the research documents more drastic and detrimental impacts arising from lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and movement restrictions. These measures significantly restricted access to maternal and child health and other essential services, undermined household livelihoods, and heightened vulnerabilities shaped by pre-existing socioeconomic and political conditions. Ineffective social support systems further pushed urban households into unsustainable coping mechanisms, making compliance with pandemic policies increasingly challenging.

This rich and nuanced exploration of the pandemic’s indirect effects demonstrates how the absence of robust social support systems, alongside poorly contextualised conceptualisation and implementation of international recommendations, intensified these harms. The findings have important implications for the development of context-sensitive policies and the strengthening of sustainable social support and health systems to better prepare for future pandemics.