Staying Informed: Pandemic Inequality & Why We Should Care About It
By Mary Kaitlin Enright
I was in Cape Town, South Africa when I first heard the word “coronavirus.”
As a student studying abroad in a foreign country—one that was hit by the pandemic later than most—the word “coronavirus” seemed like an enigma that would never personally affect me.
We all know how that turned out. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve all been impacted by the coronavirus and its aftermath in one way or another. However, one of the most important lessons that I learned from having heard the word for the first time in South Africa is that how individuals experience the pandemic is completely different, and oftentimes, unequal.
A month or so after having first heard the word “coronavirus,” the world had imploded. On a more tangible level, many of my fellow study abroad students in other countries (namely Europe), had been sent home. Multitudes of people in Asia, Europe, North and South America alike had been struck with the virus and were in the hospital. The world was slowly, but surely, shutting down for the foreseeable future. On a more intangible level, the world was struck with fear, uncertainty, loss, and longing—emotions that to many were unfamiliar at this scale and nearly unbearable. We, collectively as human beings, were all experiencing the same thing from quite literally seven billion different angles. Unfortunately, those angles were not equal.
Upon being sent home from my study abroad program, I began to see that inequality in action. While many of my fellow students very quickly had their schooling moved from in-person to online, I was sitting at home with no classes to attend. The University of Cape Town, South Africa, did not have the resources to adjust to a Zoom University world as quickly as schools in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. And nor did its students. Many students in Cape Town did not have personal computers, smartphones, or even stable WiFi connections on which they could access their education in the new, expected modality. It took two months for the University to successfully transfer their curriculum online, after building and planning the infrastructure to do so, and distributing technology and resources to as many of the students who also did not have access as they could. It certainly made clear how the things that I often take for granted were things that many go without.
In order to not belabor a point that I have already written about extensively, you can read more about that experience in my Open Letter of Gratitude in the Wake of COVID-19 | IES Abroad.
I would like to focus more on the truth behind that experience: that millions of people around the world were and still are being affected by pandemic inequality.
Pandemic inequality is a term or concept that reflects that the way in which people experience and are affected by the pandemic (in all forms of health—physical, emotional, financial, mental, etc.) is unequal, due to numerous external factors including age, income, disabilities, mobility, education level, home ownership, employment, and even location.
This is all to say that the way that an individual experiences a pandemic is reliant on those factors, and it is why various groups from the black and Latino community in New York city, to low income Americans, to women in Canada, to those who work in travel and hospitality, to low income neighborhood residents in Mexico City, to poorer countries, and so, so, so many more have had difficulty handling the effects of the pandemic. Each of these communities and groups has varying levels of access to the necessary resources to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, or any pandemic, for that matter. Some countries, and further, communities, have access to:
Technology (for education, medical research, work from home adjustments, etc.)
Infrastructure (hospitals, transportation, strategy and planning, government)
Capital, both financial and human resources (for medical necessities and their distribution)
Healthcare, both systems and regular care (for a higher level of baseline health, as well as access to support and care in the event of virus transmission)
in large sums, and are therefore able to handle this situation. We here at Villanova are one of these communities. However, many do not have access to such resources. This is where the demographics and economics of pandemics comes into play, and requires attention and action. For more information about how these factors come into play when it comes to pandemics, you can learn more about many of them through the University of Chicago Becker Friedman Institute’s series of podcasts on Pandemic Economics.
So, this is a problem. We all know it. But what can we do about it? First and foremost, inform yourself not only of the issue itself, but its sources, its causes, as well as your own personal privilege in comparison to it. (And if you’ve read all the way to this part of the article, you’re well on your way!)
Second, think about these questions:
How have you or your family been affected by the pandemic?
How is that experience different from how others, perhaps less fortunate, may experience it?
What position are you in to help? Can you share resources, time, support, or care?
Now, use your answers to those questions, and any ideas or sources of passion that come of them, to be a Villanovan and ignite change.
(For some more resources about how pandemic inequality can be tackled,
At a high-level, or for a more top-down approach:
read this article about how to lessen inequality in a pandemic, and/or this article on tackling the inequality pandemic.
And at a more individual-level, or in a more bottom-up approach:
readthis article about how People Power, Not Powerful People, Can Help End Inequality, and/or this article about 5 ways to help during the coronavirus pandemic.)
