COVID-19 Is Over (If You’re Rich)

At the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 was often depicted as an agent of random chaos, a disease that affected everyone irrespective of their race, gender, or socioeconomic status. On virtually every count, this assumption has proved to be false. Although the coronavirus managed to disrupt how human beings live and work, it didn’t do so proportionally. The crisis hit an unequal world and, when it did, exacerbated those inequalities. By and large, living through the worst of the pandemic has been easier for the wealthy, many of whom could afford to maintain a certain semblance of normalcy while mitigating health risks. The superrich got even richer.

To get a glimpse into the world of the affluent during the pandemic, I reached out to many of the businesses that flourished off them. Private jets, superyachts, personal catering, concierge medicine—these industries have not only survived but thrived during the pandemic, in large part because they could provide their customers with all the things that COVID-19 had rendered in short supply, like safety, seclusion, and, above all, a sense of control. The wealthy have already learned how to live with COVID-19 (albeit at a very high cost). Now the rest of the world must figure out how to do the same, on a budget.