Covid 19 and Deprivation: Levelling Upstream

COVID-19 and its socio-economic and public health impact has provided the opportunity for the government to seriously pursue its stated political aim of levelling up.The greater risk of serious illness and death experienced by poorer and marginalised socio-economic groups have been reflected and exacerbated directly by COVID-19. Thus, there is a clear need to refocus policies further upstream digging deeper into the structural causes of absolute and relative deprivation.