Stop the self-pity... think of those who are risking their lives
BRITAIN passed a grim milestone this week, as the death toll from Covid reached more than 100,000. It was a tragic moment, full of heartache and grief. The lethal scythe of the disease has swept through our society with a malignant intensity far beyond anything experienced in modern peacetime.
It is the elderly and the chronically sick who have borne the deadly brunt of this extraordinary pandemic.
But within the working population, the burden of suffering has not fallen evenly. On the contrary, the least well-off have endured most. Those in manual occupations are at greatest risk, with well-off executives and managers in the least danger.
That point was reinforced this week in a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which examined Covid deaths between March and December. It found male postal workers, security guards, and cleaners – what the ONS awkwardly calls “elementary professions” – had the worst levels of Covid mortality, with 699 deaths, a rate of 66.3 per 100,000 people.
THE NEXT most vulnerable group was social care staff, followed by lorry drivers and transport workers, a category that saw 609 deaths.
Outside the battered ranks of the NHS, other jobs with higher than average death rates included refuse collectors, machinists and retail assistants.
Those findings are particularly poignant because these are the occupations that have heroically kept our society functioning throughout the crisis.
Quite rightly, the public has honoured the awesome dedication of the medical professionals, most powerfully through Thursday night applause during the first lockdown.
But a huge debt is owed to all key workers. Without the brave men and women who deliver the mail, empty the bins, run the care homes, drive the buses, staff essential shops and maintain supplies, Britain would have broken down.
They have done their duty on the frontline and, like the soldiers on the Western Front in the First World War, many have paid the highest price.
Such sacrifices put into perspective some of the fashionable bleats about the ordeals of lockdown. The affluent classes might be denied their usual visits to the theatre, trips to restaurants, dinner parties and holidays abroad, but most at least have the security and comfort of working from home, safe from contact with the public.
Essential workers do not have that luxury. According to a Resolution Foundation think tank study, 42 per cent of employees cannot do their jobs from home. There is no Zoom technology that can sweep the streets, no FaceTime call that can change an elderly resident’s bedding in a care home.
Whenever I feel myself sliding into self-pity because I have been in isolation for months as a result of a medical condition, I think of the magnificent, warmhearted workers who make my life so much easier, from the pharmacist who organises my myriad prescriptions to the postman weighed down by my book purchases.
One recent Saturday night at 10pm I had a supermarket delivery made by a driver whose cheeriness was undimmed by the late hour.
Yet these are the workers who have received the rawest of deals during the crisis. The health risks they face are compounded by job insecurity and low pay. Their selflessness brings few material rewards.
A report by the Institute of Employment Studies found one in 20 low-paid employees had
been put out of work in each quarter of the pandemic, the equivalent of 250,000 workers, whereas the figure was just one in 50 for those on higher wages.
SHAMEFULLY, many of those in the biggest danger are on the lowest pay. Despite their vital roles, more than half of frontline care workers earn less than the living wage.
Moreover, staff in these key jobs often have to endure alarming levels of abuse. A study by the USDAW trade union found 61 per cent of supermarket employees have been abused and 28 per cent threatened in the pandemic.
All these injustices expose the warped priorities of our society. Too much value is attached to z-list celebrities, money-grabbing lawyers and jargon-spouting consultants. Not enough credit is given to those doing the real hard work.
In a crisis, who matters more: a refuse collector or a selfie-fixated social influencer?
“All labour that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance,” said US civil rights leader Martin Luther King. His words should be resonating in today’s Britain.
‘Many of those in the biggest danger are on the lowest pay’