I was interviewed with my colleague Cyrille Delpierre about why we think health inequalities are extremely important in the #COVID19 crisis regarding the social epidemiology of infection as well as the effects of confinement

Here's what we said [thread]

French article here
https://twitter.com/hugosoutra/status/1247415582254825473?s=20

1/ While the early cases outside of China were likely to have been well-off travellers, once #covid19 began to spread within countries there's no reason to think that social factors will not play a role

2/ Diseases, health states, life expectancy and mortality are all known to be socially patterned. The most socially disadvantaged in our societies are affected by worse health and premature death compared to their more advantaged counterparts. We expect to see this for #Covid19

3/ We expect that people with fewer resources & less affluent social conditions are more exposed to #covid19 through their occupation, housing etc. Because they are more likely to have other diseases, they are more at risk of presenting severe forms of #covid19

4/ We also have concerns about the structural, social and psychological effects of measures like #confinement. The economic consequences of such policies will likely have long term damaging effect on the health of the most socially disadvantaged

5/ We advocate for data collection on social factors as standard in all hospital & clinical settings in #France & beyond. We ask that government agencies consider social & socioeconomic factors when collecting data & when making recommendations

6/ Finally, we emphasise the need for proportionate universalism when implementing public health policies to prevent #covid19 & to move towards the end of #confinement periods
Structural social discriminations must be taken into account in this crisis

7/ One danger to watch out for as health inequalities become a topic of discussion in the media: stigmatisation of ethnic minorities & low-income groups. I have seen this already on the news, people being blamed for not obeying #confinement rules etc

So, what are we actually doing?
-Working to set up studies to collect social & socioeconomic data relating to #COVID19
-Facilitating others with their studies
-Trying to gain access to relevant datasets
-Lobbying for social & socioeconomic data to be added to clinical records