Social inequality fuels Covid-19 deaths: Jeffrey Sachs
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According to Jeffrey D. Sachs, an American economist, author of books and adviser to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe (including Poland after 1989), Asia and Africa - among the factors influencing the mortality due to Covid-19 in individual countries quality of leadership is important political, coherent government response to the crisis, the number of places in hospitals, the frequency of travel of foreign citizens and the age structure of the population.
But, as he wrote for Project Syndicate , the underlying factor is wealth and the distribution of wealth .
"A high level of inequality undermines social cohesion, weakens social confidence and deepens political polarization, all of which negatively affects governments' ability and preparedness to respond to crises," Sachs stated.
The three main examples, namely the USA, Brazil and Mexico, are countries where income and financial inequalities are very high.
In Europe, 60 percent of deaths from Covid-19, in turn, occurred in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, where inequalities are also high. Sachs compares them to European countries with a lower Gini coefficient, including Poland, although our result is not that low.
The economist points out, however, that the correlation between economic inequalities and mortality is not perfect.
