Poverty in this country should not be an issue.
Agreed, but poverty in the UK is very bad. Over 50,000 premature deaths each year, largely due to crippling cuts to the NHS since 2008 and a slashing of budgets for social care by 50% since 2008. Luckily for the Government, most of these people are elderly and they are all poor, hence of no interest to the newspapers or industry.
Amidst the Covid19 deaths we should also remember the 450 people who die each day from cancer, exacerbated by poor air quality and smoking, which again is worst amongst poor areas. That is 165,000 premature deaths from cancer every year - no peaks or troughs - which helps to put the Covid19 deaths into context.
Remember poor people are often disabled or elderly and cannot work.
And I am not belittling Covid19, I am just saying that the death rate has to been seen in context.