US ‘Viral Underclass’ Suffer from COVID More than Others

By Staff, Agencies

No one is immune to COVID-19, but not everyone's experience of the pandemic is the same in the United States, where the poor are more vulnerable, according to a report.

The NBC report suggested that privileged Americans have free, high-quality testing and quick access to anti-COVID medication, whereas those without insurance must now pay for testing, and quick access to medication has proven elusive for some, China Daily reported.

Steven Thrasher, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, refers to people who are poor and live in crowded conditions with limited access to insurance and innovative medical techniques as the "viral underclass."

He explains how disease exposes and compounds inequality in the United States in his new book "The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide."

An April report found that people in poor counties in the United States died of COVID-19 at around twice the rate of people in more affluent counties, likely due to a lack of health insurance.

"Poorer people face higher risk from COVID, just as they have shorter life expectancies in general," said the report.

Meanwhile, health care in the United States is complicated and alienating, especially for people with few resources. A study released in early 2022, for example, found that lack of a high school degree was significantly correlated with vaccine hesitancy, the report added.