White people are not used to seeing themselves as a race. From my own experience, I've been very aware of being a black person from a very young age because, when you're not part of the dominant culture, you're always the other.
COVID-19 has laid bare not only health hierarchies but also race and class privilege. The death rate among black, Asian and ethnic minority communities in the UK is more than twice that of white people.
It isn't comfortable to admit that you are safe because someone else is unsafe, and that we benefit from structural oppression in a very real way.