The COVID-19 Pandemic: Have We Really Been All in This Together?

Abstract

Today it is possible to state that the event known under the name of Covid-19 pandemic, which has irrupted into the ordinary life of everyone of us since February 2020, can be truly inserted into the category of the most meaningful phenomena ever happened in the human history. The high degree of unpreparedness showed by governments and institutions all over the world in facing the crisis raised legitimate questions about its potential predictability and contributed in a negative way to open the door to the incredible pace of diffusion of this deadly virus that finally reached every corner of the globe. The sentence “We are all in this together”, pronounced by many in the attempt to create a sense of union, resulted quite inappropriate to describe the real burden suffered by each, different, individual. The main objective of this study is the creation of awareness regarding the inequalities already present in the social system and how they have been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic proposing, for this purpose, a deep analysis of the more important social dimensions involved. In particular, the core of this work of research presents the investigation of the unequal health consequences, the unbalance in the disposal and use of digital instruments which resulted to be real life-saver tools in the lockdown contexts, and the uneven impact on labor markets and education. The elaborate includes data and information from e-books, online articles, and working papers accurately selected to adequately explore the arguments treated on a global perspective. The results underline worrisome trends which see the most disadvantaged as those hardest hit in all the topics covered, exposing at the same time the weaknesses of modern societies and the need to learn from what has happened to be better prepared for future shocks, because no one deserves to be left behind.