Truths and Lies about this Pandemic: What are the lessons for health rights and social justice?
From the article:
Covid-19 is showcasing the good, the bad and the ugly of human nature and social ingenuity. What are the lessons that we as ESC rights advocates should take away from this pandemic and how might we use this time to prepare a transformative agenda for health rights, democracy, and global governance?
1. This virus is NOT “a great equalizer.”
Far from being an equalizer, Covid-19 is, in reality, a social x-ray that illuminates the fragmentation and social inequalities within and between our societies. That mendacious bit of propaganda which politicians, pundits and celebrities are fond of spouting shows repulsive indifference to the depths of suffering tens of millions are and will suffer because of the pandemic.
Think for example of the millions who have lost their jobs and have no benefits, the women who find themselves confined with their abusers; and the homeless people, prisoners and those in any form of overcrowded housing conditions; and think of the vast swathes of people across the global South who have no stable employment whatsoever and don’t even have regular access to soap and water.