With care workers, nurses and bus drivers among those most likely to die, drastic action is needed by the state
Britain’s class system determines who is wealthy, who has power, and even who lives. Before Covid-19 arrived, if you were a man in one of England’s poorest communities, you could expect to live nine years fewer than someone in one of its most affluent areas. Those living in the poorest parts of Britain have a greater chance of suffering from heart and lung disease, and their children are more than twice as likely to be obese as those in the richest parts. People condemned to poor-quality housing are more likely to have illnesses such as asthma, and with mental health disproportionately damaged by the stresses of poverty, the poorest men are up to 10 times more at risk of suicide than the richest.
From the very start, the pandemic was always going to be shaped by the inequalities that define contemporary Britain. This is a virus that disproportionately inflicts the worst illness – and death – on those with underlying health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, which disproportionately affect the poor. While middle-class professionals have the luxury of working in Covid-compliant homes, millions of working-class Britons cannot perform their tasks remotely. Many have no option but to cram into public transport en route to workplaces which often do not enforce safe social distancing to protect them. Recent statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that care-home workers and nurses are among those most likely to die from coronavirus, alongside machine operatives, home carers, chefs, restaurant managers, nurses and bus drivers. These figures do not surprise, but they should still shock. Many of the key workers who people applauded from porches, windows and balconies during the first lockdown were cheered to their deaths.
