Press Not Sorry
Prof Christina PagelThe Covid pandemic has highlighted (and made worse) existing inequalities.
1st - people in most deprived areas more than twice as likely not to be vaccinated vs least deprived areas - and so remain far less protected
There has been a really important study using ONS infection survey data to look at deprivation impact (and so circumventing the problem of who seeks testing).
All data from Apr 2020 to Jan 2022. I'll highlight some key results here.
Those in most deprived areas much more likely to have gone to work throughout pandemic and also found it harder to socially distance at work.
Economic impact too: those in more deprived areas more likely to lose job/be furloughed and less likely to be re-employed.
Even after Omicron arrived which seemed to infect everybody, prevalence was higher in most deprived areas than in least deprived.
NOTE that data only goes to Jan 2022 so misses a lot of Omicron era.
And this fed through to (self-reported) health outcomes: people in most deprived areas more likely to habve contacted the NHS and more likely to be admitted to hospital.
And it also shows up in mortality statistics - these from UKHSA's CHIME tool. The rates are adjusted for age (people in deprived areas tend to be a bit younger) and uses death certificate data.
Mortality more than twice as high in most vs least deprived areas.
And finally - we also see much higher rates of reported Long Covid among those in more deprived areas. Deprivation has been consistently identified as a risk factor for Long Covid across many academic sudies now.
Fundamentally, those in the most deprived areas have fared worst by *every* measure.
This is cos of more exposure, poor working & housing conditions, poorer health, poor communication & community involvement and much else.
As @ProfBambra said on today's Indie SAGE briefing, we need wholsesale change to prioritise population health in this country.
PS thank you to Bob Hawkins for pulling these charts together! he's invaluable.
Pazzle Ron Cupboard@chrischirp great thread. Someone please let Owen Jones, Novara media and any other supposed socialists know... For the hundredth time.
Dave Warnock@chrischirp thanks, this exactly fits my experience living and working in Wythenshawe, Manchester for the last 4 years.
When we get the figures for this winter, I'm certain things will have got even worse.
The energy crisis & cost of living are having a very disproportionate effect on health. Our Debt Centre & Foodbank see that.
Families are cold, hungry & financially terrified.
When we get the figures for this winter, I'm certain things will have got even worse.
The energy crisis & cost of living are having a very disproportionate effect on health. Our Debt Centre & Foodbank see that.
Families are cold, hungry & financially terrified.
trisk!@chrischirp Thank you so much for this key information. As an American, I'm interested in seeing how UK and US disparities compare to each other (although I'm fairly certain that here it is worse). Keep up the good work!
SmileyRach3 🇪🇺🐟🐻@chrischirp Excellent thread. Thank you. It highlights the pressures deprived areas will continue to experience as their social care and general funding is already likely to be stretched., leading to increasing deprivation and ill health. The long covid picture is particularly stark and concerning
#Poverty #SocialJustice #Deprivation
#Poverty #SocialJustice #Deprivation
DrArtAnalytics
Bill Ricker@chrischirp ouch: counting only registered & enumerated means this is an understatement of the problem, as the truly most deprived, no regular healthcare and uncounted, aren't even in the mix.
Louise Locock@chrischirp Our new Healthtalk site on experiences of COVID focuses particularly on what it was like for minoritised groups https://healthtalk.org/Covid-19-recovery/overview
Tania Glyde