Inequality Kills Us All: COVID-19's Health Lessons for the World

"The pandemic revealed how healthy different nations compared to one another with the US having the most cases and deaths from COVID-19. The public remains indifferent to this carnage. Medical care and personal behaviors are overshadowed by two more important concepts. Economic inequality kills. Early life lasts a lifetime. We are totally unaware of this social murder lethal force. Roughly half of our adult health has been programmed before we go to school. Healthier nations privilege this period by providing paid parental leave, and strong supports for early life. We speak of investing in health, accessing health, paying for health and getting health. These are not about health but about healthcare. All the other rich nations and a number of poor ones have better health outcomes than we do"--