The financial uncertainty, chaotic scheduling demands and fear of illness and death during the COVID-19 pandemic have all caused stressors to multiply. And the weight of the last year and a half has fallen especially hard on women and people of color, who have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s worst effects.

But has the pandemic caused a mental health crisis, with corresponding increases in anxiety and depression?

In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Tim Bruckner, a professor of public health at UCI, discusses whether the predictions of a follow-on mental health pandemic have come true, how women’s careers have been affected by the pandemic and how equity has been incorporated into California’s public health response.