The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights warns failure to address social and economic inequalities will make it more difficult to contain COVID-19 and will likely lead to more catastrophic pandemics in the future.
As with most things in life, the rich are weathering the coronavirus crisis better than the poor and marginalized. Several months into the pandemic, emerging data show that people on the lowest rungs of society are suffering the worst physical, mental, and economic effects.
U.N. rights chief Michele Bachelet says the virus itself does not discriminate, but it has laid bare the huge economic and social inequalities that exist. She says that must be addressed by creating a post-COVID-19 recovery plan that is more inclusive and sustainable.
“The majority of the emerging diseases of the last years, not only COVID-19, but we can start thinking of SARS and MERS, Ebola—a lot of different flus, the huge flus are all zoonotic that are transmitted from animals to human beings and then from human beings to human beings,” Bachelet said.
Bachelet warns many more crises will arise in the future if problems of inequality continue to be ignored.
The high commissioner also expresses concern about the surge in hate speech, xenophobia and restrictions on basic freedoms stemming from fears and misinformation about the pandemic. She says national leaders have to speak out against efforts to vilify others for a disease that is not of their doing.
“As a former politician, I know how difficult it can be for national leaders and ruling parties to take politics out of the equation,” Bachelet said. "But also, as a doctor, I know that this pandemic will not be contained by politics or ideologies, or by a purely economic focus. It will be contained by careful, sensitive, science-guided policymaking, and by responsible and humane leadership.”
Bachelet warns allowing politics or economics to drive the response at the expense of health and human rights will cost lives and do more damage. She says championing the rights of the elite at the expense of those who are less privileged will cause coronavirus to flare up again. And that, she says, will have serious consequences for everyone.