COVID-19 more deadly to working-class Americans in 2020: study

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Working-class Americans died of COVID-19 at five times the rate of those in higher socioeconomic positions in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, according to a study reported recently by The Seattle Times.

The staggering disparity was revealed in a study of roughly 69,000 U.S. victims of COVID-19 aged 25 to 64 who died in 2020, which was conducted by a group of researchers and was published in April on the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

The study's authors found that 68 percent of the deaths they studied were among people considered to be in a low socioeconomic position, defined as workers whose education stopped at high school. In contrast, only about 12 percent of deaths occurred among people in high socioeconomic positions, defined as those with at least a bachelor's degree.

Working-class employees faced "elevated infection risks," according to a summary of the study, compared to higher-paid workers who were "more likely to have fewer exposure risks, options to work remotely, paid sick leave and better access to quality health care," as cited by The Seattle Times.