An analysis report has shown that racial inequality and race are risk factors which can contribute to coronavirus. Tara Pilkington reports.
Government ministers have been urged to recognise how racial inequality and race are risk factors for Covid-19 following the release of a Guardian analysis.
This analysis revealed that ethnic minorities in England are dying in disproportionately high numbers when compared with white people. with people from minority groups being over-represented among the coronavirus deaths by as much as 27%.
Additionally, this analysis found that of the 12,593 patients who died in hospital up to 19 April, 19% were from BAME communities despite the fact that these groups make up only 15% of the general population in England.
These findings highlight what many local reports had suspected, that minority groups have a higher risk of contracting coronavirus compared to the rest of the general population.
Speaking to the Guardian, professor of diabetes and endocrinology at University Hospital Birmingham, Wasim Hanif, commented on how social deprivation was one of the strongest indicators for mortality.
He said: “There have been health inequalities that have existed in the [BAME] population but what is being reflected in this pandemic is that those inequalities are actually coming out,”
He also added: “Deaths happen in relation to complications related to diabetes all the time, as with cardiovascular diseases and cancers, but they have never hit the headlines and that’s the effect we’re seeing now.”
As deaths by ethnicity have yet to be compared to the local population, further research is needed in order to identify the degree to which minority deaths are over-represented.
- Read the full Guardian report at: ‘What is happening is not normal’
