El Salvador’s Covid-19 response is storing up health and economic problems for the worse-off

Our new research into the effects of El Salvador’s lockdown shows that those with the lowest incomes and the worst health have been hit the hardest. While many have skipped meals and stopped working, others have even ended treatment for chronic illnesses or taken loans from predatory lenders. These adaptations only make the situation worse, and the state must try to tackle the conditions driving them if the country returns to lockdown, write Mylène Lagarde (LSE Health Policy), Manuel Sánchez Masferrer (ESEN, El Salvador), and Carlos Riumallo Herl (Erasmus University Rotterdam).