The most misleading cliche about the coronavirus is that it treats us all the same. It doesn’t.

It exacerbates preexisting conditions of inequality wherever it goes, and before long, uprisings will be one of the side effects https://trib.al/TvsPfcA 

Social unrest was already increasing around the world before the virus began its journey:

From France to Sudan, Hong Kong to Bolivia, there’s been about 100 large anti-government protests since 2017. About 20 of these toppled leaders https://trib.al/Fcg0eNB 

The coronavirus puts a magnifying glass on inequality wherever it is.

While the wealthy can work safely from home, countless other Americans don’t have that option: The less money you make, the less likely you are to be able to work remotely https://trib.al/Fcg0eNB 

Lacking savings and health insurance, workers in precarious employment have to keep their gigs or blue-collar jobs just to make ends meet.

As they do, they risk getting infected and bringing the virus home to their families https://trib.al/Fcg0eNB 

The virus prefers some zip codes over others, thanks to a mix of factors such as:

Average incomes
Population density
Nutritional habits

In the euro zone, high-income households have almost double the living space as those in the bottom decile https://trib.al/Fcg0eNB 

The differences between nations are even bigger:

Those living in a shantytown in India or the Philippines can’t socially distance because the whole family sleeps in one room. There are no masks to wear, and sometimes no running water to wash hands https://trib.al/Fcg0eNB 

The International Labor Organization has warned that the pandemic will destroy 195 million jobs worldwide, and drastically cut the income of another 1.25 billion people.

Most of the people that will be affected were already poor https://trib.al/Fcg0eNB 

It’d be naive to think that, once this crisis is over, the world can carry on as before. Unrest is already stirring:

Millions of Brazilians bang pots and pans from their windows to protest the government. Lebanese prisoners riot in their overcrowded jails (video via @QuickTake)

The immediate impact of Covid-19 is to dampen most forms of unrest, as both democratic and authoritarian governments force their populations into lockdowns.

But tragedy and trauma will continue to build up until one way or another, they erupt https://trib.al/Fcg0eNB