Government health and social care minister misses point about workplace Covid-19 transmission in low income West Yorkshire areas

Upper Calder Valley Contact Tracing

Today Jon Trickett, MP for Hemsworth, debated his motion in Westminster Hall about Covid19 and Health Inequalities in West Yorkshire.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Jo Churchill) responded weakly, with an attempt to blame “higher rates of smoking in areas such as the one that he represents” for the higher rates of respiratory infection among the aging former miners. She followed this with a recital of government propaganda about its plans for a new Health Promotion Agency and an account of government investment in Covid-19 community champions.

The UK government’s focus on “health promotion” as a matter of individuals’ “lifestyle choices” avoids identifying and redressing structural socio-economic inequalities and is counter-productive. (Journal of Public Health.Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 653–660 doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdw140)

Jon Trickett’s main point was that the Covid-19 virus disproportionately affects deprived areas. To make all areas safe, we need to tackle…

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