What is it about?

Socioeconomic status has been known to be associated with many aspects of social life such as health. Through examining data sources and news reports on the COVID-19 pandemic, we argue that social stratification remains relevant in understanding differentials in health during a pandemic, as countries globally have encouraged or enforced social distancing and remote work measures. However, these measures are more easily adopted by individuals with higher socioeconomic status (SES). Individuals with higher SES are more likely to have jobs that provide opportunities for remote work to be performed, which allows for social distancing. Comparatively, individuals with lower SES are more likely to be involved in jobs that cannot be performed remotely, such as service or manual labor that are more at risk of contracting COVID-19.

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Why is it important?

This paper is unique because it looks at the link between morbidity, remote work and social distancing during the pandemic in the United States.

Perspectives

This paper is highly recommended, because it tackles the issue of pressing social inequalities, lowered access to social distancing measures and remote work, and the impact on health.

Nilanjan Raghunath
Singapore University of Technology and Design

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: The impact of social stratification on morbidity during the COVID-19 pandemic, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, September 2020, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/ijssp-07-2020-0261.
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