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Understanding the reasons behind urban patterns of coronavirus can help improve urban resilience and sustainability.
Blood samples ready to be tested for COVID-19 at Bandung, West Java.
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Unequal access to testing can lead to late diagnosis and preventable deaths due to COVID-19 among the poor people.
In Mozambique’s urban settlements a lockdown might be feasible for a short period of time.
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When restricting the movement of their citizens to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, low income countries should tailor measures to local socio-economic circumstances.
Franz Xavier Winterhalter’s ‘The Decameron’ (1837).
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Then – as now – the wealthy fled to the countryside, while the urban poor were forced to work on the front lines.
Police trying to enforce COVID-19 lockdown regulations outside a shop in Yeoville, Johannesburg.
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Unlike in wealthy nations, lockdowns are simply impossible in overcrowded conditions with no sanitation and high levels of poverty.
Tsala Tandu, 58, continues to drive the number 12 bus through central London during the lockdown.
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The government should consider whether some of its policies will make inequalities worse.
South Korea has been the quickest to bring the pandemic under control.
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It is not all democracies that struggle to deal with the coronavirus; it is those in which the people do not feel the system works for them.
Data shows that the gap has grown in recent years.
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For most of the past five decades, income inequality has been higher in rural counties than in urban areas. Now, urban areas are catching up.
Mass transit ridership in Los Angeles and elsewhere has plummeted during the crisis.
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One in 5 of the poorest US households don’t have a car and rely on public transportation to get around.
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Who can and can’t move and why is crucial to understanding the virus.
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If the government seeks to reduce its massive deficit by cutting public spending after the pandemic subsides, this will burden the poor and public sector workers, increasing inequality.
Staying home is easier for some than others.
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The worst effects of social distancing will undoubtedly be felt by the young, the poor and the socially disadvantaged.
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Research shows teachers in US private and privileged public schools inflate grades due to pressure from students and parents. This could happen in Australia if we cancel year 12 exams.
Children play in the Blikkiesdorp township in Cape Town.
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South Africa won’t flatten the COVID-19 pandemic curve unless all citizens have the means to stay at home. But for many, it’s either they stay at home and starving, or go out to make a living.
Health of society depends on a decent social welfare system, absence of extreme poverty and inequality.
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COVID-19 has brought to the fore the interdependency of business and society. It’s time for amendments to the social contract that underlies societal support for business.
An unemployed man in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, collects trash for resale before South Africa went into a Covid-19 lockdown.
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The clock is ticking: in the absence of government support, not being able to work means waste reclaimers don’t have money to buy food.
Jobs could be hard to keep or find for quite a while.
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The economic fallout from COVID-19 will likely harm new workers in distinct ways with long-term effects, three economists say.
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The consequences will be far more severe and long lasting in poorer countries.
South Africa’s Alexandra township in the foreground, where the majority live in squalor, and Sandton in the background, representing the most privileged
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Most consumers in South Africa aren’t able to fill up a trolley of groceries for their daily needs, let alone join the panic buying induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Families recovered from the Great Depression much more quickly than the Great Recession.
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While the Great Depression reduced inequality and closed the racial wealth gap, the Great Recession of 2009 did the opposite.