Covid-19: We are not “all in it together”—less privileged in society are suffering the brunt of the damage

Just because the the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson and the Prince of Wales have had covid-19 doesn’t mean the disease strikes all people equally. As with previous disasters throughout history, from the bubonic plague to the Grenfell Tower fire—the people who are hardest hit are those already disadvantaged. By the middle of May the pandemic had claimed over 33 thousand lives in the UK, but once again we see this is a depressingly familiar pattern repeated. People living in the poorest areas are twice as likely to die from covid-19 as those in the wealthiest areas.¹ Black people are three to four times as likely to die compared to white people.^2,3 Men in low-skilled jobs are four times more likely to die than professionals.⁴ It is clear that we are not “all in it together” and the less privileged in society are suffering the brunt of the damage.