The Guardian, Covid exposed massive inequality. Britain cannot return to "normal", Michael Marmot (15 December 2020) - Structured commentary

Thèmes abordés

Covid, Britain, society's malfunctions, inequality, opinion, ethnic groups, Marmot Review, Black Report, New Zealand, commitment, fair society, National Health Service, United Kingdom, British health system, pandemic, economic growth, policymaking

Résumé du document

Covid exposed massive inequality. Britain cannot return to "normal"." is an article published by The Guardian on December 15th, 2020. It was written by Michael Marmot, who is a professor of epidemiology at University College of London, United Kingdom, and the director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity and past president of the World Medical Association. In this article, he argues that the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed increasing inequalities within British society, as the lowest socioeconomic groups and regions had a higher mortality rate due to Covid. Indeed, Michael Marmot thinks that crises such as Covid reveal a society's malfunctions. Therefore, the United Kingdom should take into account these revealed inequalities to try and build a fairer society in the after-Covid world. How does he defend this opinion, and why is it so important to him?

Extraits

[...] It means that the population on its whole should get richer so that the country could be truly wealthier. Indeed, the author had found four explanations to the growing inequalities within the British health system: governance and political culture which don't prioritize good health; increases in economic and social inequalities within the country; the policy of austerity including cuts to funding of publics services; finally, poor state of the nation's health" (l.26-30). These are the four main issues that the country has to address to build a fairer society. [...]

[...] We also notice that they had a better health in the first place, explaining why they suffered less from these crises. This is why, in Britain, Covid-19 has revealed "inequalities in health, and in the social conditions that lead to ill health" (l.7-8). Thus, Covid-19 was more lethal in "deprived" areas, and also among ethnic groups such as Black, Asian and other minorities. All this could be explained by bad living and working conditions, along with a "structural racism" (l.39) meaning that "some ethnic groups are more likely to be exposed to adverse social and economic conditions" (l.39-40). [...]

[...] Britain cannot return to "normal", Michael Marmot (15 December 2020) - Structured commentary Article: Covid exposed massive inequality. Britain cannot return to "normal", The Guardian December 2020, By Michael Marmot "Covid exposed massive inequality. Britain cannot return to "normal"." is an article published by The Guardian on December 15th It was written by Michael Marmot, who is a professor of epidemiology at University College of London, United Kingdom, and the director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity and past president of the World Medical Association. [...]

[...] But he remains optimistic about a possible improvement, as there are many solutions and it is: "There is so much that can be done to improve the quality of people's lives. Inequality in health is a solvable problem." (l.82-83). To conclude, this article considers the Covid-19 pandemic as a possible turning point in the British health policy, since it revealed how much it needs to change in order to build a fairer post-pandemic society. This is why Michael Marmot claims that the United Kingdom should not want a return to "normal" after the pandemic, as the situation was already problematic before the beginning of the pandemic. [...]

[...] This idea can also be linked to the 1980 Black Report which showed that there were already very important social-class relative health inequalities in the United Kingdom. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic merely proved and also increased this trend. Social inequalities' consequences Then, according to Michael Marmot, these social inequalities towards health are highly problematic and reveal an issue within the United Kingdom, compared to some other countries such as New Zealand, mentioned by the author in this article, which consider the well-being of its population as a priority. [...]