Jennifer Schaffer

Jennifer Schaffer is an American writer living in London
Why are the rich and famous getting coronavirus tests while we aren't?

“Low-paid “key workers” – nurses, orderlies, delivery drivers, teachers, grocery store attendants and social caregivers – put themselves at greater risk of contracting the virus in order to keep society running, while generously paid employees in less-essential industries work from home.

So far, that seems to be a lesson of this virus: it shows us who and what gets protected, as the ship sinks. On the Titanic, it was women and children. With Covid-19, it’s the wealthy and powerful. Testing is just one part of the class story unfolding: everyday workers are being laid off en masse while the wealthiest industries begin batting their eyelashes at trillion-dollar bailouts.

When this is over, I hope we’ll remember who got thrown the life jackets, who got in the lifeboats. I hope we’ll remember how the rest of us were left on the sinking ship, to save each other in the small ways that we could. I hope we have the energy to fight for structural change, once we’ve thrashed and paddled our way back to the shore.”