Covid-19 is amplifying these differences. Many other low paid workers are more vulnerable simply because they are exposed much more because of their job – for example, a care worker or a bus driver. In the UK, we have seen that those living in care homes are extremely vulnerable. This finding may partly explain the data from the USA and UK, showing that people of colour are several times more likely to die than others. For example, those with pre-existing medical conditions often grow up in poorer households where we already know that health outcomes are much worse. Professor Marmot’s view is that the Covid-19 pandemic is amplifying existing disparities in income and life opportunities. These funding cuts perversely created more pressure and costs for the National Health Service. But the government and much of the media do not mention risk factors identified in the 2020 Marmot study which highlighted a startling rise in poor health in more deprived areas of the UK due to austerity policies. We are told that at risk groups include the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. Some of us are very much more at risk than others. And Covid-19 also exposes an uncomfortable truth. But this is a novel message from those that believe in competition between market forces to achieve maximum ‘efficiency’ and profit. UK Government ministers say that ‘we are all in this together’. Resources to prevent and forecast the spread of disease by advanced testing and contact tracing were allowed to fall to a low level. ![]() This was followed in 2018 by a biological security strategy – but it was not properly implemented. In the UK, in 2016, a pandemic preparedness exercise ‘Cygnus’, found that the National Health Service would be quickly overwhelmed with many critical shortages. In some countries – such as the UK and USA – funding for preparedness for pandemics had been cut, despite warnings that new infectious diseases would become more prevalent due to both climate change and as human populations encroach further on remaining wildlife refuges. In a very short time, the crisis has revealed how dependent we are upon our health services and many of the lowest paid workers in society – cleaners, delivery drivers, shop workers, care staff, fruit and vegetable pickers – and we painfully discover that, even in wealthy countries, health services simply do not have anything like the capacity in terms of doctors, nurses and specialist medical or protective equipment to cope with those needing treatment despite ceasing all but essential emergency treatment. Our society and support structures are weak This article looks further at the impacts emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic and the implications for other global threats requiring urgent action. ![]() The first blog in this series identified several implications for governments internationally and public policy. ![]() Responsible Science blog (2nd in Covid-19 series), 28 April 2020 Dr Phil Webber, SGR, looks at some emerging implications from the Covid-19 crisis for policies related to health, social justice, science, economics, environment protection and security.
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