5 - The Pandemic Onslaught

Summary

This chapter shows that COVID-19 death rates were more than twice as high in areas of high deprivation as in less deprived areas. This is due, firstly, to a greater likelihood of contracting COVID-19 and then, secondly, to a greater vulnerability to its effects. Those with lower incomes are more likely to be key workers and to use public transport, exposing them to greater risk. This is compounded by a greater vulnerability to serious illness as underlying health conditions linked to deprivation – cardio-vascular disease, obesity and diabetes – interact with the virus. These co-morbidities often affect whole families, including those living in multi-generational households, increasing disease transmission. The higher death rates of the BAME population are discussed, alongside the structural discrimination and potentially direct racism that may have played into this.

The chapter continues with an analysis of the inadequacies of the benefit system as an insurance against hard times, and the likely long-term consequences of the poverty and destitution that will follow, especially in more deprived northern regions. It then focuses on the ‘COVID generation’ scarred by the loss of education and work, by unequal access to home learning, and carrying a mental health burden into the future.