An Anthropological Demographic Study on the Sociocultural Causes of Covid-19 Spread among the Highly Educated in Egypt: Five Case Studies from Cairo

Abstract

Covid-19 is a disastrous pandemic that broke out into the world in 2019, and continued to spread until the date of this paper in 2021. However, the prediction of the onset of its symptoms did not always mitigate its spread. Though it was believed that the highly educated, with their hygienic precautions and health awareness were far from being infected by most infectious diseases, they could not escape its psychological and social effects. This paper aimed to uncover some of the possible reasons behind the infection of five cases from three traditional families chosen as examples to share in explaining the causes of the spread of this pandemic among a vulnerable cross-section of the middle aged and elderly highly educated, where the researcher passed through that experience in Cairo Egypt, since the early of April to the late of May 2021. Through the theory of Jennifer Johnson-Hanks with its application of demographic anthropology perspective, this study highlighted the importance of social and cultural factors in explaining causes and effects of demographic data, in addition to potential solutions as future precautions for that Pandemic.