The second pandemic: Examining structural inequality through reverberations of COVID-19 in Europe

Abstract

While everyone has been impacted directly or indirectly by the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to contain it, not everyone has been impacted in the same way and certainly not to the same degree. Media coverage in early 2020 emphasized the “unprecedented” nature of the pandemic, and some even predicted that the virus could be a global “equalizer.” Ensuing debates over how the pandemic should be handled have often hinged on oppositions between protecting health and healthcare systems versus saving livelihoods and the economy, a dichotomy that we argue is false. Drawing on 482 interviews conducted in Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland and the UK over two points in a 6-month period as part of the ‘Solidarity in times of Pandemics Research Consortium’ (SolPan), we illustrate the ways that oppositions posed between saving lives or saving livelihoods fail to capture the entangled, long-standing nature of structural inequalities that have been revealed through the pandemic. Health- and wealth-related inequalities intersect to produce the “second pandemic,” a term used by a research participant to explain the other forms of devastation that run in parallel with virus. Our findings thus complicate such dichotomies through a qualitative understanding of the pandemic as a lived experience. The pandemic emerges as a critical juncture which, in exacerbating these existing structural inequalities, also poses an opportunity to work to better resolve them.

SDG5 ‘Gender Equality’ and the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid assessment of health system responses in selected upper-middle and high-income countries

“…In relation to cultural powers, the making of a biomedical discourse of pandemic risk and protection marched in step with reductionist and positivist approaches in science and healthcare (Correia & Willis, 2021). The ‘neutrality’ claims embedded in these approaches made the needs of women, minorities and vulnerable groups invisible and nurtured social inequalities during the pandemic (Fiske et al, 2022; Morgan et al, 202; Wenham et al, 2020). The reasons for exacerbating gender inequalities during the pandemic are therefore complex, yet a global discourse of ‘crisis’ with its own priorities and new powers might explain why we found similar trends across countries with different institutional settings.…”

“…The United Nations warned us early, that the COVID-19 pandemic puts the limited gains in gender equality and women's rights made over the decades at risks of being rolled back (UN Women, 2020c). Available data highlighted the social costs of lockdowns, especially the `second pandemic' (Fiske et al, 2022) and 'shadow pandemic': 'UNFPA had projected that if lockdowns were to continue for 6 months, 31 million additional gender-based violence cases can be expected, and for every 3 months the lockdown continues, an additional 15 million additional cases of gender-based violence are to be expected' (Feminist COVID Response, Advocacy Monitoring Toolkit, 2021, p. 36). Feminists across the world therefore called to action to protect human rights and the health of women and the UN Secretary General urged 'governments to put women and girls at the centre of their recovery plans' (UN, 2020).…”

Aggressive measures, rising inequalities, and mass formation during the COVID-19 crisis: An overview and proposed way forward

“…( 218 ). In the last decades, economic inequality increased in most countries, stabilizing in the 1990s ( 219 ), but increasing dramatically since 2020, prompting some authors to refer to this as the “second pandemic” ( 220 ). While the focus on making profits has created wealth for large groups of people, resources have become unevenly divided among the total population.…”

Aggressive Measures, Rising Inequalities and Mass Formation During the COVID-19 Crisis: An Overview and Proposed Way Forward

“…(Cushing et al, 2015). In the last decades, economic inequality increased in most countries, stabilizing in the 1990s (Neckerman & Torche, 2007), but increasing dramatically since 2020, prompting some authors to refer to this as the "second pandemic" (Fiske et al, 2022). While the focus on making profits has created wealth for large groups of people, resources have become unevenly divided among the total population.…”