In the UK, when the Prince of Wales and the Prime Minister became infected, along with tens of thousands of lesser mortals, it sparked comments along the lines of COVID-19 as “the great equaliser”.

He writes: “when we conduct a post-mortem on this pandemic-a stock phrase that, in this case, isn't a metaphor-we'll probably find that the same hostility to government that routinely undermines efforts to help Americans in need played a crucial role in slowing an effective response to the current crisis.” Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist, suggests a link between this annual toll of excess deaths and deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic that should have been avoided. Anne Case and Angus Deaton's book Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism drew attention to US exceptionalism in the form of an epidemic of deaths from drugs, alcohol, and suicide, linked to the failures of capitalism, US style. Apart from the mendacity, incompetence, narcissism, and disdain for expertise of the man at the top, there may be strong messages about the nature of US society and the response to the pandemic. The USA has become one of the countries worst hit by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), both in cases and deaths. In a similar way, epidemics expose something fundamental about a society and, if we have the capacity to learn, teach us that things can be done differently. As to what can be done differently, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry is examining that question, but it does seem that, to save money, building standards were tolerated that should not have been and, indeed, might not have been in buildings designed for richer inhabitants. The slow burn of injustice, and avoidable health inequalities, is less dramatic than the conflagration-poor people dying in a fire-but no less profound, and more enduring.

In Golborne Ward, adjacent to Grenfell Tower, life expectancy for men was 22 years shorter than that in the richest part of the borough, near the luxury department store, Harrods. The mean salary in that London borough in 2017 was £123 000, whereas the median of the salaries in the area was £32 700, which points to a huge contrast between high and low earners. In the case of Grenfell, the underlying societal problem was deep-seated and enduring social inequalities and resultant health inequalities. This event exposed underlying problems in society and it showed us that we have to do things differently. A dramatic conflagration such as this could teach us two kinds of lessons, if we were but open to receiving them. 72 people died, among the poorest and most marginalised in society. On June 14, 2017, Grenfell Tower, a high-rise housing block in the Royal London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, UK, went up in flames.

Slow burn through highs lows