THREAD: After the announcement of lockdown 3, @deb_cohen and I asked on #newsnight how straightforward it was for everyone to follow the rules. And we asked if we could drive Covid numbers down without supporting essential workers effectively?

In simple terms: If you’re living comfortably - working from home - and you’ve got a cough, there’s every chance you’ll get tested - if only as a precaution. But supposing you’ve got no job security and cash is very tight, what chance you ignore that same cough?

We spoke to @mugecevik who sits on Nervtag - the UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group that advises @CMO_England

A week before Christmas, a Public Health England report was quietly released that pointed to other factors that drive transmission. At the heart of it was inequality. It’s here: https://tinyurl.com/yxk9fsdf 

It highlighted the different ways of how inequality can increase risk.

At the heart of this is the fact that so many of those experiencing this inequality are also the essential workers keeping the country ticking through lockdown - be they working in shops, food production or distribution. They’re essential - but are they treated as such?

According to @jackiecassell

In Toronto they’ve looked at infection among essential workers such as people working in public facing jobs such as shops, deliveries + manufacturing and agriculture. See how infection is significantly higher among those communities with the highest number of these workers.

That work was done by @sdbaral . He told us:

UK has +8m essential workers who can’t wfh. For lockdowns (with their trade-offs) to be effective they need to stop transmission in groups transmitting. Infec rates were driven right down last summer but experts have said where the embers were hottest was in deprived communities.

So what do you do about it? @mugecevik told us:

The UK has one of the lowest proportions of pay covered by statutory sick pay in Europe and millions don't even qualify. @stefanbaral again:

Understandably, our politicians have spent a lot of time trying to make people to do as they are told. But some are asking whether there has been enough effort thrown at people in those areas where without help the virus is likely to thrive.

A government spokesman told us: THREAD ENDS