Country after country begins to see the same pattern.

The coronavirus certainly affects both prime ministers and bus drivers. But there the similarities end. The well-off can afford to shop for food on a weekly basis, and jobs that can be done in comfortable home quarantine via digital media and in between go strengthening walks. Low-income earners are usually cramped, often have jobs that are impossible to perform from home, have poorer health insurance and more often risk conditions such as obesity, lung disease COPD, diabetes 2, asthma and high blood pressure.

Low-income earners are also less equipped to absorb important information from government agencies. Norwegian pandemic researcher Svenn-Erik Mamelund at the University of Oslo points out that the lower the income and education you have, the greater the risk of dying in a pandemic - a perspective that he considers lacking when discussing the spread of infection.

Is seven times more likely to fall ill

Spanish health authorities in Catalonia report that more low-income earners than high-income earners are getting sick in covid-19. Those living in socially vulnerable areas of Barcelona are seven times more likely to fall ill than those in affluent areas. If you have professions as a cleaner, bus driver, shop assistant in a shopping center or work at a senior housing, you are more exposed to the infection. Italy shows the same pattern.

In the United States, the corona pandemic has set in motion the lack of equality in flash lighting. There, low-income earners have a more fragile safety net than other western countries. Many are forced to choose not to work, and thus not be able to put food on the table, or go away and work even though they are sick. Several states for statistics on the sick and dead not only by age and sex, but also ethnicity.

With the help of the statistics, several states are beginning to see the same pattern. Blacks and Latinos are over-represented among the deaths. In Illinois, the blacks make up 14 percent of the population, but account for 41 percent of deaths. In Florida, a greater percentage of blacks die than others who are admitted. In Louisiana, 70 percent of the dead are black. Similar reports come from Wisconsin and Michigan. The states of New York and California, on the other hand, do not provide statistics on ethnicity of the sick.

"We must not have a color-blind strategy," warns Stephen Thomas, professor at the Center for Health Justice at the University of Maryland, in an interview with the online magazine Politico.

"Those already exposed have proven to be poorly equipped"

He believes that the explosive development among vulnerable minority groups requires special efforts. In the US, Latinos and blacks also do not have health insurance to the same extent as whites. Living in constant financial stress and with short hours of employment also leads to a poorer immune system.

Also in Sweden, the virus is reported to have spread more widely in residential areas among more socio-economically vulnerable groups. Rinkeby-Kista - suburbs to Stockholm - has 47 infected per 10,000 inhabitants, while the average for Stockholm County is 13 infected per 10,000.

In other words, it is already the vulnerable people in society who have proved to be the least equipped to face the dangers of the pandemic. The consequence, researchers warn, will be that the economic gaps in society are growing further.