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Pre-existing social inequalities contributed to the UK posting the highest Covid death rates in Europe, a leading public health authority said, warning that many children’s lives would be permanently ruined if the problem is not addressed.
Sir Michael Marmot, known for his landmark work on the social determinants of health, argued in a new report that families at the bottom of the social and economic ladder were being lost before the pandemic and are now suffering even more, losing health and jobs. , lives and educational opportunities.
In the report, Build Back Fairer, Marmot said that these social inequalities must be addressed at any cost and it was not enough to go back to how things were before the pandemic. “We cannot afford not to,” he said.
“It is simply unacceptable for us to say that it is okay for children to go to bed hungry… we have some incorrect notions about the need for austerity… What is the society we want? We want to ensure the health and well-being of all members and the fair distribution of health and well-being. We simply cannot afford not to. Public debt is no excuse. We know it’s a wrong understanding of economics. “
It painted a grim picture, underscored by statistics showing that the most disadvantaged families are the most affected. Men and women living in overcrowded conditions in the most deprived areas of the country are the most likely to die from Covid. Caregivers and those working in the leisure and service industries have the highest mortality rates before age 64. People from black, Asian and ethnic minority groups who work as taxi drivers, bus drivers, security guards, caretakers, and other low-paid occupations are at increased risk of death.
Deaths in the UK
Children and young people living in disadvantaged areas had suffered disproportionately from confinement, he found. “One of the effects of the pandemic was to widen the education gap,” Marmot said. In less disadvantaged schools, few children were delayed as a result of the closures. In the most disadvantaged, children were reported to be four to six months late.
There have been “dramatic increases in food insecurity,” he said, and high rates of unhappiness or depression, particularly among the young. Young people were also at higher risk of losing jobs during the pandemic.
Marmot fiercely criticized the government, which had failed to act on its February report showing that austerity policies had already damaged health and reduced life expectancy in England.
“Before the pandemic, the increase in life expectancy had stagnated, inequalities were increasing and the life expectancy of the poorest people was decreasing,” he said. “That was a measure that society was not doing well. And then the high excess mortality during the pandemic is simply a measure that society is not doing well. “
The recommendations in his report addressed the reasons, he said, related to governance and political culture, as well as the widening gap between those who have power, money and resources and those who do not.
“We have to reverse the reduction in spending on public services, as I said, we were poorly prepared. We were not healthy entering the pandemic. Which means that we have to put the fair distribution of health and well-being at the center of all government policies. “
Funding for public health fell dramatically during the austerity years. “England’s Public Health budget was reduced after its founding in 2012 by 40% and public health spending in local government was reduced by approximately £ 800 million.
“So in February / March, when we should have established a national test, trace and isolation system, public health should have organized it,” he said.
But it didn’t happen that way. First, the policy was not to do it at all, he said, and then he handed it over to a private company “and it doesn’t matter if the person running it has no experience, because we know Private solutions are always better than public solutions, so we will give them to the private sector to manage.
“Colossal mistake. We should have used public health, local public health: fund them properly, make them do it. “
Jennifer Dixon, executive director of the Health Foundation, said there was no doubt that the pandemic would be taking its toll for years to come. Mitigating the damage caused by the pandemic to education, employment and income must be at the center of the government’s plans for recovery and leveling.
“For young people, this means practical help in finding employment and training to access better quality jobs. As we rebuild, these measures are vital to ensure that the generation of young people who have lived through the pandemic do not continue to feel the impact on their health for the rest of their lives, ”he said.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that in a country of such means there is such a strong division between the richest and the poorest in society. This report should serve as an important call to action for the government to invest in the long-term health of this nation, as, in these challenging times of uncertainty, closing the gap has never been more important, ”said the president of the BMA Scientific Board. , Professor Dame Parveen Kumar.
