COVID-19, inequality, and the intersection between wealth, race, and gender

Abstract

As this special issue goes to press, the COVID-19 pandemic will likely continue to be devastating communities, societies, and economies globally. This pandemic has touched all of humanity, forcing us to acclimate to a strange ‘new normal’ that belies our very nature – relatedness. The pandemic has compelled us to maintain physical distance, to wear masks that indelibly affect our ability to connect and communicate, to forsake rituals and rites of passage that anchor us, and for many of us, to lose loved ones, colleagues, and livelihoods. As with many disease outbreaks, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed global and national fractures between the rich and the poor, the disadvantaged, and the privileged. It has spotlighted the glaring inequities in access to healthcare and highlighted the dire consequences of insufficiently investing in public health infrastructure and human resources. It has revealed how the responses of those in power and governance have impacted (in some cases positively, and in others, negatively) on the health and livelihoods of citizens globally. Very importantly, it has exposed how historical and systemic inequalities have continued to disadvantage communities and forefronted the risks inherent in the climate crisis. A recent Oxfam report titled ‘The Inequality Virus’ details how the COVID-19 virus has ‘exposed, fed off and increased existing inequalities of wealth, gender and race’ (Oxfam, 2021). While the world’s richest individuals and companies have already witnessed a financial recovery, for the world’s poorest individuals – the majority – economic recovery to pre-pandemic levels could take more than a decade (Oxfam, 2021). For those working in the informal economy, and in caring roles (predominantly women), the economic fallout has been pronounced (United Nations, 2020). Individuals most at risk include older people, people living with disabilities and pre-existing illnesses, as well as those living in poverty (United Nations, 2020). The Statistics South Africa Vulnerability Index (VIndex) uses 2011 census data to describe spatially and statistically the vulnerability status of South Africans to COVID-19 (Statistics South Africa, 2020). At-risk