What coronavirus reveals about the UK’s inequalities

The virus does not discriminate – we are all at risk, said Michael Gove. True from a purely biological perspective – anyone who draws breath might inhale the pathogen.

But the latest analysis from the Office for National Statistics certainly makes it look as if we are far from equal when it comes to the risk of actually dying from Covid-19.

The significance of statistical correlations is sometimes overblown. But the data suggesting a causal relationship between economic deprivation and Covid-19 mortality rates is hard to dismiss.

The ONS has found that coronavirus death rates in the most economically and socially deprived areas of England are more than double those in the least deprived parts. It’s a similar story in Wales. But what to make of it?

There’s a considerable amount about this virus that we don’t fully understand. It’s not clear, for instance, why ethnic minorities have been so disproportionately affected, nor why so many more men than women have died from the disease. Some have posited genetic theories.

Yet the fact that people who live in deprived areas have been hit hard feels easier to explain.

We know that those with underlying health problems – respiratory problems, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease – are more likely to die if they contract Covid-19. And we know that poor health tends to be more prevalent in more deprived areas.

Indeed, that's one of the reasons these places tend to have lower life expectancies in normal times.

One might plausibly add that, at the moment, people in poorer areas tend to live in more crowded housing and are less likely to be able to work from home, making them more likely to be exposed to the virus in the first place.

The latest ONS figures also show a vast London effect, reflecting the reality that this virus seems to spread faster in densely populated metropolises.

The capital’s mortality rate is far higher than other regions of the UK.

Yet drill down into the figures and one finds a tale of two cities – death rates are higher in poorer boroughs of the capital like Newham and Brent than richer ones like Kensington and Richmond.

Urban density is important, but it isn’t everything.

Many have made the point that this pandemic has served to shine a spotlight on the pre-existing inequalities in our society and that’s certainly the case with these latest mortality rate statistics.

Poor health and poverty tend to go together. And that’s plainly made those on low incomes more vulnerable in the face of this coronavirus outbreak.

The danger is that the economic crisis resulting from the lockdown will entrench these inequalities.

As research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown, low earners are seven times as likely as high earners to have worked in a sector that is now shut down.

The government, then, faces a double challenge – first, to shield the lives and livelihoods of the most deprived in the slump and second to reduce social and economic inequalities when we come out of it.

On the first front, the scope and level of welfare payments have already been raised. And more resources are going into the health service.

On the second front? Expect to start hearing that phrase “levelling up” again before too long.