COVID-19 and Global Inequality

From zero to hero: An exploratory study examining sudden hero status among nonphysician health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“…The outpouring of support for their efforts during the pandemic has recast health care staff across all organizational ranks as “essential workers” and elevated them to the position of “heroes” (Booth, Adam, & Rolfe, 2020). This testimony of public recognition has not only come in the form of symbolic gestures of appreciation, such as rounds of applause (L’Express, 2020), mural paintings (McCann, Landau, & Mahieus, 2020), and “honk for heroes” parades (Booth et al, 2020); it has also been manifested in material support for workers from nonprofit and for-profit organizations through food donations, airline tickets for future travel, and salary increases from the government in the form of “hazard pay” vouchers (Allen, 2020).…”

Changing epidemic of tuberculosis amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the Western Pacific Region: analysis of tuberculosis case notifications and treatment outcomes from 2015 to 2022

“…Several studies indicate that the pandemic's impact on various sectors was more substantial in lower income countries. 12 , 33 , 34 As shown in Fig. 9 , stringent government policies against the pandemic had a more immediate, profound and prolonged damage on TB services in these countries.…”

Emerging ethical challenges in researching vulnerable groups during the COVID-19

“…Finally, at an international level too, while the pandemic has led to higher death rates in more developed and ageing societies (De Larochelambert et al, 2020), it looks to be having a greater and longer lasting socio-economic impact on low-and middle-income countries (Danquah et al, 2020;McCann and Matenga, 2020). Thus, as Marino et al (2020, p. 36) sharply put it, "Colonialism, structural oppression, wealth disparity, and unequal access to knowledge and public institutions expose pre-existing structural inequalities in ways that can no longer be ignored."…”

“…Finally, at an international level too, while the pandemic has led to higher death rates in more developed and ageing societies (De Larochelambert et al, 2020), it looks to be having a greater and longer lasting socio-economic impact on low- and middle-income countries (Danquah et al, 2020; McCann and Matenga, 2020). Thus, as Marino et al (2020, p. 36) sharply put it, “Colonialism, structural oppression, wealth disparity, and unequal access to knowledge and public institutions expose pre-existing structural inequalities in ways that can no longer be ignored.” The unequal access to knowledge they mention could be mirrored by an increasingly limited access to generating knowledge about these countries, as their increased health and social/structural vulnerability is likely to have been hindering the prospects for research on the ground, more so than in better-off countries.…”