The 1918 Spanish flu
Introduction
The 1918 Spanish flu is commonly known for social-economic class inequalities within America. Most research presents the pandemic as one that hit the poor and the rich alike. The Covid-19 pandemic is not different. The coronavirus has commonly been referred to as one that “does not discriminate,” with famous statements as “we are in it together.” However, although the virus does not discriminate, the social order and systems do. This paper aims at dispelling the covid -19 myth of the disease as a socially neutral disease. The paper argues that the corona-virus pandemic is not the root cause, but it reveals and exacerbates existing inequalities and injustices in societies.
Why the Covid-19 pandemic reveals and exacerbates the existing inequalities.
The Covid -19 pandemic and its impacts have disproportionately affected specific marginalized ethnic or national communities and population groups. The crisis has exposed and highlighted fundamental structural inequalities and economic, civil, social, and political life issues. It has also exacerbated racism and racial discrimination that exist in different places in the world. Most significantly, the economic consequences of the pandemic have not had equal severity on all shoulders. The pandemic has exposed existing vulnerabilities and entrenched inequalities. The majority of the individuals with minimal means and protection, especially employees in informal employment and those in various work provisions, have been the hardest hit. The Covid pandemic has revealed deep-rooted structural inequalities and fragility in labor markets, especially to women, ethnic minorities, young people, low-paid workers, and self-employed individuals. Labor inequality rose by about 30% during the pandemic, mainly due to low-income workers’ wage cuts and job losses (Aspachs et al., 2020).
Many day laborers, wage earners, and employees within the informal economy work to put food on the table. A report in the UK shows food banks have witnessed significant increases in food demand due to sudden unemployment and reduced wages. Consequent food scarcity on supermarket shelves has further jeopardized even the food security of low-income families and vulnerable groups. Their precarious work conditions and job insecurity do not enable them to stock up on food or other essential items (Power et al., 2020).
In many countries, most frontline workers are among the marginalized groups subjecting them to higher risks of contracting the coronavirus. For instance, in India, most basic health workers and sanitation workers are women and lower-class individuals who cannot secure suitable housing and sanitation facilities. The Indian policy response to the pandemic has further intensified the existing gender and social class inequalities because social distancing measures are not available to the urban poor and rural areas dwellers. Also, vulnerable neighborhoods are vulnerable to ill-health due to air pollution, fewer food outlets, chronic stress, and failure to access open spaces. Research also shows that most of the people inhabiting vulnerable neighborhoods are excessively people of color, placing them at higher risks of infection (Chowdhry, 2020).
Also, it raises a significant concern that some soldiers will die in the war against the virus. Suggests in Canada, 73 % of the infected health-care workers are women, and that service workers are also inexplicably women. Women offer such essential services as cashiers, retail sales, kitchen and food services, daycare, and health-care. Messing (n.d) views women as soldiers who have been placed in the front line to engage in battle without resources. It is quite challenging for these women to work from home with their children around. Great inequality emerges where highly educated and skilled workers have a likelihood of working in occupations that accommodates remote working. They, therefore, continue being paid and advancing their careers. On the contrary, some employees cannot work from home probably due to their nature of jobs or due to inaccessibility of internet connections or lack suitable space. In this case, they are left behind. Thus, low–waged workers face miserable prospects of eroding their skills and work experience during the pandemic period ( Myers 2020).
In Europe and the US, the need for the sick people to isolate and enforce longer durations of mandatory lockdowns is economically hard. This is particularly the case for many individuals who cannot merely shift their work and work online, those working within the service sector under zero-hour contracts or other temporary employment types. In recognition of such patterns’ fundamental effects, various European governments have promised compensation to employees who have lost their jobs or those compelled to stay at home during the pandemic. But Hanier (2020) shows uncertainty on how the government will manage to meet the needs of the significant number of employees who will end up losing their jobs due to the pandemic. Such schemes may also be possible for most of the global population. In countries with many of the workers as informal workers or those who depend on unpredictable daily wages, such as Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, there may be no feasible way of choosing whether to self isolate or stay at home.
Conclusion
The Covid -19 pandemic significantly exposes and magnifies inequalities on a broad range. Corona. In developed countries, there are higher rates of death amongst the already marginalized groups. In developing nations, the pandemic may even hit the vulnerable populations harder. Amidst the social and social dislocation that comes with the pandemic, there seems to exist great inequality between the developing and the well-developed countries when it comes to fighting the pandemic. Significantly, people all over the world come together in solidarity to overcome. Otherwise, we risk leaving huge populations behind. Further, the deepening of inequalities may get more people into poverty and weaken current global systems to respond to future emergencies.
References
Aspachs, O., Durante, R., Graziano, A., Mestres, J., Montalvo, J. G., & Reynal-Querol, M. (2020). Real-Time inequality and the welfare state in motion: Evidence from COVID-19 in Spain.
Chowdhry, K. (2020, October 7). Has COVID-19 highlighted social injustice built into our cities? The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. https://www.cebm.net/2020/10/has-covid-19-highlighted-social-injustice-built-into-our-cities/
Hanieh, A. (2020, December 4). This is a Global Pandemic – Let’s Treat it as Such. CADTM. https://www.cadtm.org/This-is-a-Global-Pandemic-Let-s-Treat-it-as-Such
Messing, K.(n.d). if It’s a War against COVID-19, Who Are the Soldiers on the Front Lines? file:///C:/Users/user/Desktop/Messing%20Who%20are%20the%20Soldiers.pdf
Myers, J. (2020, August 18). 5 things COVID-19 has taught us about inequality. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/5-things-covid-19-has-taught-us-about-inequality/
Power, M., Doherty, B., Pybus, K., & Pickett, K. (2020). How COVID-19 has exposed inequalities in the UK food system: The case of UK food and poverty. Emerald Open Research, 2.