The Unequal Pandemic
COVID-19 and Health Inequalities
By Clare Bambra, Julia Lynch and Katherine E. Smith
Published
Jun 15, 2021Page count
198 pagesISBN
978-1447361237Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Jun 15, 2021Page count
198 pagesISBN
978-1447361251Dimensions
Imprint
Policy Press
The Unequal Pandemic
Rated as a top 10 book about the COVID-19 pandemic by New Statesman: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2021/07/best-books-about-covid-19-pandemic
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC- ND
It has been claimed that we are ‘all in it together’ and that the COVID-19 virus ‘does not discriminate’.
This accessible, yet authoritative book dispels this myth of COVID-19 as an ‘equal opportunity’ disease, by showing how the pandemic is a syndemic of disease and inequality.
Drawing on international data and accounts, it argues that the pandemic is unequal in three ways: it has killed unequally, been experienced unequally and will impoverish unequally.
These inequalities are a political choice: with governments effectively choosing who lives and who dies, we need to learn from COVID-19 quickly to prevent growing inequality and to reduce health inequalities in the future.
COVID-19 is an unequal pandemic.
Clare Bambra is Professor of Public Health, Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University.
Katherine Smith is Professor of Public Health Policy at University of Strathclyde.
Julia Lynch is Professor of Political Science at University of Pennsylvania.
Foreword - Kate Pickett
1. Introduction: Perfect Storm
2. Pale Rider: Pandemic Inequalities
3. Collateral Damage: Inequalities in the Lockdown
4. Pandemic Precarity: Inequalities in the Economic Crisis
5. Pandemic Politics: Inequality through Public Policy
6. Conclusion: Health and Inequality Beyond COVID-19
