The coronavirus pandemic and measures to combat it in many countries of the world have only aggravated existing social problems and inequalities. Observers analyze how closely the health and well-being of citizens are interconnected, and who suffered the most as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
The rich are easier to cope with COVID
In many countries, the crown-crisis has revealed inequalities in access to treatment,” writes Zuzanna Dombrovskaya, editor of Rzeczpospolita:
“The contrast between powerful and insanely rich Trump and those who live in trailers without health insurance is enormous. In Poland, the increasing number of deaths from COVID, as well as the lack of IVL and Remdesivir, also raise doubts about equal and fair access to drugs and life-saving medical equipment. And I do not believe that deputies, including those from the right-wing Confederation party, will have problems with this access.
The recession has a female face
This time the recession has primarily worsened the situation of women — this observation is shared by The Irish Times:
“Traditionally, the recession is more likely to hit men, as its first victims are the construction and manufacturing sectors. However, the current recession has primarily affected those sectors of the economy in which women are predominantly employed — retail, hotel, and restaurant. This gender dimension of the recession has been exacerbated by the closure of schools, nurseries, and kindergartens.
Well-being is not only measured in money
On the pages of eldiario.es, journalist Marko Schwartz criticizes the fact that, in the fight against the coronation crisis, everybody again talks exclusively about GDP:
“In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy set a noble goal for a commission of experts headed by Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to ‘redefine capitalism’. He set a specific goal for economists to create a tool other than GDP with which to measure policy success. The reason for this was the reasonable assumption that the previous indicator did not adequately reflect the needs of citizens… I do not know how much the French government paid scientists to do this then. But I am sure that the report, which was greeted with jubilation at the time, has since been sleeping the sleep of a righteous man.
