History will likely remember the Covid-19 pandemic as the first time since records began that inequality rose in almost every country at once. However, not everyone was affected in the same way.
The coronavirus crisis has hurt people living in poverty far harder than the rich. It has fed off and increased existing inequalities of wealth, gender and race, fueling poverty and injustice. While many of the richest – individuals and corporations – are thriving, hundreds of millions have been pushed into destitution.
Coronavirus has taken close to two million lives worldwide, but the deep divide between the rich and the poor has proven as deadly as the virus.
Coronavirus hit an already profoundly unequal world
The coronavirus crisis has swept across a world that was already extremely unequal. A world where, for 40 years, the richest 1% have earned more than double the income of the bottom half of the global population. A world where a tiny group of over 2,000 billionaires had more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes. A world where nearly half of humanity was forced to scrape by on less than $5.50 a day, just one paycheck away from penury.
Such extreme inequality meant that billions of people were already living on the edge when the pandemic hit, without access to basic healthcare or social protection. They did not have any resources or support to weather the economic and social storm it created.
Since the virus hit, the rich have got richer, and the poor poorer
The coronavirus crisis has impacted the economies of every country on earth, and the jobs, wealth and incomes of every person. However, it’s a very different story depending on whether you're at the top of the economic ladder, or at the bottom.
All around the world, the super-rich have escaped the worst impacts of the pandemic. Our deeply unfair economic system has enabled them to amass huge wealth in the middle of the worst recession in 90 years while hundreds of millions of people have lost their jobs and faced destitution and hunger.
It is estimated that the total number of people living in poverty could have increased by between 200 million and 500 million in 2020
The inequality virus in numbers
The ten richest men in the world have made half a trillion dollars since the pandemic began, more than enough to pay for a Covid-19 vaccine for all and to ensure that no one is pushed into poverty by the crisis.
If women were represented at the same rate as men in the low-paid precarious professions that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, 112 million women would no longer be at high risk of losing their incomes or jobs.
The pandemic deprived children in the poorest countries of almost four months of schooling, compared with six weeks for children in high-income countries.
9 out of 10 people in poor countries are set to miss out on the COVID-19 vaccine this year - while wealthier nations have bought up enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly three times over.
Inequality is costing lives. Nearly 22,000 Black and Hispanic people in the United States would still be alive if they experienced the same COVID-19 mortality rates as their White counterparts.
The recession is over for the richest
In the first months of the pandemic, a stock market collapse saw billionaires experience dramatic reductions in their wealth. Yet this setback was short-lived. Within just nine months, the 1,000 richest people on the planet recouped their COVID-19 losses, while it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Women and racialized groups are paying the highest price
While largely white, male billionaires ride out the pandemic in luxury, women and marginalized racial and ethnic groups such as Black people, Afro-descendants and Indigenous Peoples are bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 crisis. Because they are excluded in large numbers from quality healthcare and social protection and tend to be in informal and more precarious work, they are more likely to be pushed into poverty, more likely to go hungry, more likely to contract the virus and more likely to die from it.
Millions more suffering from hunger
Coronavirus’ massive impact on jobs and livelihoods has led to an explosion in hunger. The UN estimated that the number of people experiencing crisis-level hunger would rise to 270 million by the end of 2020 because of the pandemic, an increase of 82% compared with 2019. This could mean between 6,000 and 12,000 people dying each day from hunger linked to the crisis by the end of 2020.
There can be no return to where we were before
We are at a pivotal point in human history, and history will remember how we chose to act at this tipping point. We cannot return to the unfair, unequal, and unsustainable world that the virus found us in.
Governments around the world have a small and shrinking window of opportunity to create a just economy after COVID-19. One that is more equal, inclusive, that protects the planet, and ends poverty. One that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. Here are five key actions to build towards that better future:
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