Place, politics and disease ecology: A commentary on Emch and Goel

Emch and Goel offer a valuable historical overview and discussion of recent trends in disease ecology, a longstanding theme in health and medical geography (HMG), and one that continues to attract research attention.The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us of the global reach and complex dynamics of many emerging and ongoing disease challenges, making Emch and Goel's thoughtful review timely and significant.At the same time, HMG has moved far beyond disease ecology, embracing diverse conceptual framings and methodologies and extending its focus to social, emotional and physical health, broadly conceived, rather than just disease (e.g.Green, et al., 2020;Rosenberg, 2014;Wiles, 2022).Health and medical geographers have also offered reflections on, and critiques of, disease ecology (Mayer, 2010;Oppong & Harold, 2010).These bodies of work frame my comments on the article and my thoughts on where the field could be headed.My comments focus on the roles of place and politics in contemporary disease ecology research.In keeping with the article's focus, I emphasize quantitative and empirical research methods and perspectives on disease ecology and pay scant attention to the large and longstanding literature on political ecology of health and disease that relies strongly on qualitative and critical approaches (e.g.King, 2010).Why are place and politics relevant for quantitative disease ecology research?I write this commentary from the United States, where a vaccine denier has just been appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services; where potentially massive cuts are underway at the nation's most esteemed scientific organizations; where politicians are attempting to restrict access to key information on ongoing public health threats like H5N1; and where support for global public health activities is being sharply curtailed.If we needed any reminders of the embeddedness of public health research, information and science in social and political systems, those reminders are here and now.It is cruelly ironic that the scientific and public health infrastructures that underpin interventions against COVID-19 and other ongoing and emerging disease challenges are under assault.One of the article's key contributions is to demonstrate increasing attention to context, broadly defined, in disease ecology research.Although the authors correctly point out that past disease ecology research often investigated contextual and environmental