Florida University Social Inequality and Health Care Discussion

I’m working on a sociology discussion question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Research persistently points out that the lower a person’s socio-economic status (SES), the more likely they are to catching a major disease. During the recent Covid-19 pandemic, many poor people found themselves totally vulnerable to the disease. If you are at the economic margins in this society, if you lose your job, you probably lose your access to health care (insurance), forcing you to make a decision as to whether to seek costly medical care or find other ways to “survive” for your family. Many times, this is a life-or-death decision.

Read the following article on the relationship between the Coronavirus and economic inequality (“As Coronavirus Deepens Inequalty, Inequality Worsens Its Spread”). Then answer the following questions:

1. How DOES inequality worsen pandemics? 

2. How DOES the pandemic itself worsen social inequality?

3. What is the “feedback” loop that emerges from this process?

4. Did you or people you know have to make the decision between whether or not to access health care because of this recent pandemic? What would you like to see different when we experience another pandemic?