A Project for HIST 1000 in 2020-2022
 
Social Class vs. Pandemics

Social Class vs. Pandemics

Introduction

Did you know Immigrants are more likely to work jobs that require in-person attendance with minimal pay, and often requiring public transportation to report to work? These immigrants need to survive and support their family, so they must put themselves at risk of getting the virus. Many people argue that immigrants are not treated correctly in America, and if they do not have money, they are at the highest risk of getting the virus. Also, outside of just immigrants, “mortality rates in 1918 to 2009 were highest among those with the lowest socioeconomic status” (Mamelund, 1). Your social class effects your chances of surviving and getting viruses.   

“Political Economy – News and Views – April 12, 2020.” Daily Kos, www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/12/1936637/-Political-Economy-News-and-Views-April-12-2020.
  • This graph shows that people who were in a lower social class had worse underlying issues.
  • This makes the mortality rate go up a lot in the lower quintile.
  • The lower quintile would be considered the people under the 47k mark.

Franki, Richard. “Comorbidities the Rule in New York’s COVID-19 Deaths.” The Hospitalist, 8 Apr. 2020, www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/220457/coronavirus-updates/comorbidities-rule-new-yorks-covid-19-deaths.
  • People who have an underlying issue as you can see in this chart have an increasingly better chance to die from the virus.

Housing

“Political Economy – News and Views – April 12, 2020.” Daily Kos, www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/12/1936637/-Political-Economy-News-and-Views-April-12-2020.

Another reason lower social classes are put in more danger is they usually will have more people living in a smaller area. This brings in new ways for the virus to get into the house, and spread to families.

When people have to live in these little apartments with many other people in them there is a good chance a virus will spread. It might not even be a person that is in your family you are living with, it might just be someone that lives in the same aprtment that you come in contact with. Also, these people need to work so they usually will have to leave their kid at a daycare or somewhere with someone that do not know. “Darlyne Dagrin would drop her 22-month-old son off at a day care facility on her way to work at a nursing home”(Daniels 1). Darlyne Dargin is a worker at a nursing home in New Jersey, with the need of money to support her family and child she needed to pick up shifts and put her and her son at risk. She Is also quoted saying, “They called me and said: We wont accept no more callouts.” She had to csll out because she had no one to watch her kid this day, so this is just another example of how lower income workers had to expose themselves and there family.

Pandemics in History

The Black Death was a very deadly virus in human history and for the people who were homeless or lived in very unsanitized living conditions it was very hard to survive. During this pandemic it was a lot easier to get it, and if you ended up getting it your chances of death were high. Also, the cholera outbreaks in London killed more than 10,000 people, and again most of the 10,000 were people that were lower social class, back during a time like this, poorer people did not have as good of doctors as the people with money did.

Conclusion

People who grew up, or were born in to a lower social class have a more likely chance of getting the virus, and a higher chance of dying from the virus. Most jobs that lower income workers have are unable to from home and they have to put themselves at risk. Compared to higher social class in every element including jobs, doctors, housing, etc…. lower social class has a much harder time when a virus like Covid-19 spreads.

Works Cited

Daniels, Nicole, and Michael Gonchar. “Learning About Coronavirus and the Class Divide.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/learning/learning-about-coronavirus-and-the-class-divide.html.

Mamelund, SE., Shelley-Egan, C. & Rogeberg, O. The association between socioeconomic status and pandemic influenza: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis. Syst Rev 8, 5 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-018-0931-2

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