Some of Sydney and Melbourne’s richest postcodes have more cases of COVID-19 than anywhere else in their states according to recent health department data.
Following a series of well publicised cases involving wealthy people making fools of themselves and ignoring calls to self-isolate, a narrative seems to be emerging about who is getting, and spreading, the virus. But is this true, or just cathartic anecdata?
Eat the rich?
Some early data seems to suggest there are higher infection numbers in some very well-heeled parts of the country.
An analysis of NSW cases broken down by local government area found Waverley, which includes Bondi, Bronte and other beachside suburbs in Sydney’s eastern suburbs had 105 cases, as of Thursday, followed by the City of Sydney (69), the Northern Beaches (68) and Woollahra, also in the east (66).
Waverley and Woollahra, which include four of Australia’s 10 wealthiest postcodes, accounted for around 15% of all confirmed cases in NSW.
It’s a pattern that is also reflected in Victoria, where the Stonnington local government area, containing the blue ribbon suburbs of Toorak and South Yarra, leads the pack with 57 cases. It’s followed by the Mornington Peninsula, with 36, and Boroondara (which includes Hawthorn and Kew) on 29.
The crowds at Bondi beach last week, which caused disappointment among politicians and arguably accelerated the statewide shutdown in NSW, helped fortify the presumption that people in Sydney’s east felt insulated from the virus.
Some rich people have done little to dispel that narrative. Yesterday, The Age reported on a finance industry figure and his wife who returned from a skiing trip at Aspen with COVID-19 and refused to self isolate.
Not so fast
But Heather Booth, director of research at the Australian National University’s school of demography, says we shouldn’t jump the gun and point the finger at the rich, and be wary when making assumptions about COVID-19.
“You’ve got to look at three things when you look at these numbers,” Booth said.
“One is the number of people, the second is the testing rate and the third is the behaviour of people and what they’re doing.”
South-eastern Sydney and northern Sydney health districts, which account for three of the top four local government areas in NSW, both have the highest testing rates in the state. The areas with the most cases in the state, like central Sydney, also have some of the highest populations in Australia.
Booth, and University of Melbourne sociologist Brendan Churchill suggested you could theorise that people in wealthier areas are more likely to have travelled overseas, and mingle with foreigners. Currently a majority of COVID-19 cases in Australia are still linked to overseas travel.
But Booth also says we could hypothesise the other way:
“I would think that affluence would keep people safer. They have bigger houses, they don’t have to use public transport”
The upshot is that the COVID-19 crisis is rapidly evolving by the minute, and given that, it’s still quite hard to draw firm conclusions. It could be a long time before we get the kind of robust demographic analysis we need.
Meanwhile, the trend of wealthier areas displaying higher numbers isn’t even playing out nationwide.
In Queensland, data shows the highest infection numbers in Brisbane’s metro north health district (144), followed by metro south (123), the Gold Coast (91) and Sunshine Coast (56) — hardly the kind of split along income lines we’re seeing in NSW and Victoria.
And in the longer term, it’s poorer people, not just in Australia, but across the world, who will bear the brunt of a twin public health and economic crisis the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
Have to wonder how many of the Stonnington ones are Aspen related.
Seems quite a lot of them !!
The media is giving us good reason to with reports of affluent travellers ignoring precautions and bringing the virus to Australia. When you couple that with social research that indicates that the affluent / rich are more likely to treate rules and restrictions as something that may not apply to them and then see the LNP bow to private hospitals which want to continue with elective surgery for rich people the conclusions are hard to escape. But we can give them the benefit of the doubt or I would if those owners of Mercedes and lexus and BMW vehicles would only decide to buy indicators with their expensive cars. Oops I forgot the cars come with them standard it’s the drivers who forgot to use them because they were talking on their telephones.
It may not be true, but let’s act as if it is. Apropos of nothing, apparently the US is giving people a one-off $1200 and it costs $1200 to make a guillotine. In Queensland, Metro North would include the richest parts of Brisbane – Ascot, Hamilton and Clayfield.
Yes, it’s those dastardly bourgeois baby boomers at it again. They cause clim_te change, the GFC, DV, unemployment, housing stress, a run on the banks, bush fires and now c_vid 19. Off with their heads.
I haven’t heard anyone blaming baby boomers here. I am one myself. But it is a fact than quite a few Aussies that had the virus were in Aspen. Some there refused to be tested .
Excuse me Di, but the BB’s always carry the inherent inference of wealth and I have seen too many articles to mention on this site to the same. Denial still aint no river in Egypt.
They don’t always. We possibly do get far more blame than we should, but most reasonable people just dismiss that attitude. But clearly the people in Aspen were, No.1 rich , and No. 2 self entitled.
I have to admit Di you are probably right. But that does n’t mean we should tar them all with the same brush. i know some well-off folk who are the salt of the earth…and they don’t even ski.
Well hopefully we have seen the last of those floating petri-dishes more commonly known as the cruise ship industry. Goodbye and good riddance.