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…

• NI
  National Institute for Health and Care Research

  Award: NIHR200173
• DU
  Durham University
• NF
  Norges Forskningsråd
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Awards: MR/K02325X/1, MR/S037578/2, MR/S037578/1