Studies show that lower-income people are more likely to have chronic health conditions that make the virus more deadly. They're less likely to receive sufficient medical care or might lack access altogether. And they're more likely to work in front-line "essential" jobs that put their health at risk.
A study found that only 3% of lower income workers are working from home during the pandemic, compared to almost half of upper middle income workers.
Any rush to "open the economy" is really about forcing working class and poor people back into harm's way, while the rich and affluent can safely work from home.
For as many workers risking their lives for meager paychecks, still more are now unemployed and on the brink of financial obliteration.
Less than half of Americans can afford a $1,000 emergency, and nearly 75% live paycheck to paycheck.
Piecemeal unemployment benefits and one-time payments aren't going to buoy Americans through the next great depression.
We are all weathering the same storm, but we are not all in the same boat.
Systematic inequality in America has produced two very different pandemics: In one, billionaires are sheltering in place on their yachts in the Caribbean, and wealthy families are safely quarantining in multimillion-dollar mansions.
In the other boats sit people risking their lives for their jobs and people without incomes going hungry, a disproportionate number of whom are people of color, and all of whom deserve better.
This is a tale of two pandemics. There is nothing "equal" about it.
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