WIEGO Blog

La cobertura de COVID-19 por parte de muchos de los medios de comunicación más influyentes del mundo ha estado dominada por informes desalentadores sobre sistemas de salud desbordados, tanto aquí en Europa como en América del Norte. Sin embargo, el foco de atención ha comenzado a desplazarse para mostrar una realidad igualmente devastadora en el Sur global.

Les rapports sinistres sur les systèmes de santé débordés d’ici et d’autres parties de l’Europe, ainsi que de l’Amérique du Nord, ont dominé la couverture de la COVID-19 dans une grande partie des médias d’information influents du monde. Mais l’attention a commencé à se déplacer vers l’histoire tout aussi dévastatrice des pays du Sud.

Grim reports of overwhelmed health systems from here and other parts of Europe, as well as North America, have dominated COVID-19 coverage in much of the world’s influential news media. But the focus has begun to shift to an equally devastating story from the Global South. That story is one of longstanding structural deficits in a global economy that limit people’s ability to cope under crisis conditions.

Social distancing and staying home are real possibilities for middle-class office workers covered by social security. They are much less achievable for unprotected informal workers who fall between the cracks, excluded from formal work-related protections as well as from state social assistance programmes that target the very poor and those outside the labour market.  “I am afraid of the coronavirus,” said an informal worker in Mexico, “but I am more afraid of dying of hunger if there is no work.”