The COVID 19 pandemic and health inequalities
This essay examines the implications of the COVID 19 pandemic for health inequalities. It outlines historical and contemporary evidence of inequalities in pandemics drawing on international research into the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918, the H1N1 outbreak of 2009 and the emerging international estimates of socio economic, ethnic and geographical inequalities in COVID 19 infection and mortality rates. It then examines how these inequalities in COVID 19 are related to existing inequalities in chronic diseases and the social determinants of health, arguing that we are experiencing a syndemic pandemic. It then explores the potential consequences for health inequalities of the lockdown measures implemented internationally as a response to the COVID 19 pandemic, focusing on the likely unequal impacts of the economic crisis. The essay concludes by reflecting on the longer term public health policy responses needed to ensure that the COVID 19 pandemic does not increase health inequalities for future generations.
Journal of Epidemiology Community Health