We are writing this in a moment of global pandemic. Both lives and livelihoods are at stake, and the impact of decades of neoliberal restructuring on public health systems is only too clear. Despite banal assertions that COVID-19 is a great leveller, and the clichéd insistence that ‘we are all in this together’, in reality the spread of the virus has laid bare the profound inequalities that now, as always, influence who lives and who dies. Not only are those front-line workers whose low-paid labour has been newly recognised as ‘essential’ more exposed to the virus than those who are able safely to work from home, but the same people often face the most under-resourced health systems. Meanwhile, the impact of social isolation on the world’s informal workers is likely to be devastating, as are the consequences of the virus for the millions of displaced people who live in over-crowded refugee camps. Policy decisions that have led to social exclusion, growing inequality, and reduced access to free healthcare, as Jonathan Whittall of Médecins sans Frontières noted in this context, are ‘the enemy of our collective health’.1¹

中文翻译：

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简介：“分配性人权？” 座谈会

我们正在全球流行的时刻写这篇文章。生命和生计都受到威胁，几十年来的新自由主义重组对公共卫生系统的影响还太清楚。尽管平庸地断言COVID-19是出色的调节器，并且陈词滥调地坚持“我们都在一起”，但实际上，病毒的传播却暴露出深刻的不平等现象，如今，这种不平等现象一如既往地影响着谁的生命和谁死。与那些能够在家安全地工作的人相比，不仅那些被低薪劳动新近被认为是“基本”工作的一线工人更容易受到该病毒的感染，而且这些人通常面临着资源最匮乏的卫生系统。 。同时，社会孤立对全球非正式工人的影响可能是毁灭性的，病毒对居住在人满为患的难民营中的数百万流离失所者的后果也是如此。正如乔纳森·惠特（Jonathan Whittall）所言，导致社会排斥，不平等加剧和减少获得免费医疗服务的政策决策无国界医生组织在这方面所指出的，是“我们共同的health'.1的敌人¹