The GP at my placement today made some important points about the UK & COVID. We've focused way too much on the short term response by the gov, blaming that solely for the high death toll. A huge factor will be the pre-existing vast social inequality and deprivation in the UK.

The health inequalities in the UK are stark. In my 1st year at med school, we were taught about how in one area of Glasgow, as you go down streets the life expectancy would drop by 10 years. In one area, the life expectancy was 54 years old. Almost 30 yrs less than the UK average

Social inequality impacts health in significant ways and creates the conditions with which individuals are made vulnerable. Hilary Graham says in her work that socioeconomic inequalities become "written on the body" as health inequalities, and this has been seen clearly recently.

An absolutely key lesson that the UK should learn from this pandemic is how essential tackling social inequalities is for health. Austerity & the subsequent exacerbated inequalities have been as big a factor on the death toll as the short term responses (e.g. lockdown).