Numerous studies have shown how the poorest people are hit hardest by the new coronavirus in terms of employment, savings or overall quality of life.
However, if the impact of the pandemic was not so brutal for the richest, they would be more affected by the contaminations.
This is what reveals a survey of the direction of research, studies, evaluation and statistics (Drees) named EpiCov * - for epidemiology and living conditions.
This is the first analysis of the state of Covid-19 contamination on French territory, part of the objective of which is "to estimate the factors particularly related to living conditions associated with exposure to the virus, and study the repercussions of containment and the epidemic on living conditions ”.
To answer this question, Inserm, DREES and INSEE collected information from more than 135,000 people representative of the population, via the Internet, and drew lots for more than 12,000 in order to collect information. obtain a blood sample self-collected by respondents.
An extraordinary investigation for an extraordinary period.
The richer you are, the more your social relations book expands
Among the different avenues that scientists are studying to understand what makes one population have contracted Covid-19 more than another: the standard of living.
And the conclusion of the survey is relentless: the richest 10% of French people are twice as likely to have contracted Covid-19 than those belonging to the middle classes, or even more than the least rich 10%. .
The first reason is social, analyzes Stéphane Legleye, head of the Household Living Conditions Division at INSEE.
“The higher we go in social categories, the more the book of social relationships expands,” explains the researcher.
The opportunities to meet people, more chosen than endured, are more numerous.
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The financial capacity to dodge recommendations
A second family of explanations is material: the wealthiest people were able to continue to receive their friends, neighbors and families.
“Material resources promote a sociability of reception: one can receive at home, insists Stéphane Legleye.
Bending the rules, perceived as minimal, are easier, but mechanically increase the risk of contamination.
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Another material explanation for this greater share of contamination among the richest: the flight of many wealthy city dwellers to their second homes during the first confinement.
For the statistician, these displacements, accompanied by a relaxation of vigilance "could have favored potential foci of infection, a phenomenon which did not exist among the most modest.
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Telecommuting and parenting
The wealthiest people are also often those who were able to continue their professional activity thanks to teleworking, while others, in less well-paid jobs, suffered partial unemployment.
But, without schools to take care of the children of these homes, teleworking and childcare had to coexist.
“The intervention of a third party (grandparents, friends, babysitter) may have increased the risk of contamination,” continues Stéphane Legleye.
A study to put into perspective?
While there is no lack of concrete reasons to explain this over-contamination among the better-off, two possible biases should be noted.
“From a methodological point of view, we can consider that there is a limit to this type of epidemiological surveys carried out on the Internet: a photograph of the situation was needed, therefore a short collection time, but we know that d 'on the one hand, the better-off tend to respond more to surveys than the less well-off, but also that the better-off also pay more attention to their health than the less well-off.
INSEE has done an excellent job of weighting the results collected, but it is not impossible that there is still some explanation to be found in this bias.
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* EpiCov - "4.5% of the population in mainland France has developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2"