The government knows that poverty leads to sickness and death. And still it does nothing | Owen Jones

As more than a million people are pushed into deprivation, the consequences for the nation’s health are grave

No excuses for the Tories, no place to hide: that poverty and economic insecurity kill is an incontrovertible fact. Some may flinch when they hear that the government’s failure to address a worsening cost of living crisis will tip many of its citizens into premature graves, but the macabre nature of a fact does not make it less true.

New research published by the Office for National Statistics is merely the latest addition to what has been understood by anyone with a sufficient interest in matters of life and death for centuries. The ONS figures show that avoidable deaths account for four in 10 male deaths in England’s poorest communities: in the least deprived, that figure is less than half, at 17.8%. For women, the figures are lower, but the gap barely less acute: 26.7% and 11.9% respectively. Covid, meanwhile, was almost four times more likely to kill in England’s most deprived areas, according to the ONS, a finding that accords with previous research.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/pCMPhxq