Unintended Consequences of COVID-19: The Rise of Anti-Asian Violence and Integrative Medicine

Recent globally important events have accelerated the need to redefine ideas of health, healing and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of socio-economic and health care systems, questioning the hegemony of the Global North in addressing global health issues. In times of global interconnectedness, postcolonial dynamics and calls for integrative medicine to address complex health issues that cannot be effectively managed by a single biomedical framework, this review article aims to foster dialogues across multidisciplinary perspectives that engage in questions of health and well-being. By focusing on unintended consequences of COVID-19, specifically regarding anti-Asian violence and the important role of traditional medicines in contributing to an integrative medicine that enhances global health care systems, this article endeavours a deeper theoretical understanding of why certain issues exist as they do, and how they occur, which can provide the basis for predicting their (re)occurrence and for informing meaningful intervention efforts.