Madonna: COVID-19 is great equalizer

While we’re all locked up in our homes during COVID-19 pandemic, a curious trend emerged online. Celebrities posted videos of themselves doing normal household chores like washing dishes and mowing lawns.

It should not be a big deal, except that it is! We have always witnessed these celebrities in their larger than life surroundings and to see them doing what we normally do seems unreal.

When a pop star like Madonna calls the pandemic ‘the great equalizer’ in a bizarre video shot from her rose petal filled bath, we tend to agree with her.

Corona Virus Does Not Discriminate Between Rich & Poor

With cases like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, actor Tom Hanks and his wife, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie testing positive for coronavirus, no one seems to be safe from it.

Apart from affecting people indiscriminately, the virus is also dismantling the celebrity culture.

Fans have condemned Madonna for calling the coronavirus ‘the great equalizer’ in an Instagram video, which showed her wearing jewellery in the bathtub

Celebrities have always been glorified for their personas and wealth. Now, they seem to be normal people like us who are experiencing the ups and downs of this lockdown together with us.

Madonna pop star — People with higher incomes have better access to preventative medical care, gyms, and healthy food and are, not surprisingly, healthier at baseline. Hence, if they or their loved ones do catch the virus, they are less likely to have severe symptoms.

While the idea of calling coronavirus ‘the great equalizer’ seems tempting, it is not true.

Race, class and gender differences have had a great impact on the infection and death rates worldwide.

In the United States, African Americans and indigenous communities have contracted and died of coronavirus at an alarming rate.

Indian society that lacks any immunity to the novel virus

In India, migrant workers have had to bear the brunt of unplanned steps taken by the government.

It is difficult for the low-income communities to protect themselves from COVID-19, as money is needed to pay for sanitizers and masks.

Food Distribution during corona — Pandemics have the unique ability to amplify existing health inequalities, disproportionately affecting socially disadvantaged groups, including racial and ethnic minorities and low-income populations.

For people who do not have proper shelters and are unemployed or are migrant workers, coronavirus is much more of a threat than the people having rose petal baths in their huge mansions.

In addition to that, health care workers, nurses and sanitation workers who are at the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 have a greater risk of infection than any of us sitting at our homes.

There is no doubt that each one of us is at a risk of contracting this disease but all of us do not have the same opportunities to protect ourselves and minimize the risk of infection.