Social inequality and racism have put black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities at greater risk of catching and dying from coronavirus, a new study claims.
Public Health England’s (PHE) report found historic racism may mean people are discriminated against when it comes to personal protective equipment (PPE), potentially discouraging non-white people from seeking care or demanding better protection. While health and wellbeing inequalities have existed in the UK long before Covid-19, the study suggests they have ‘made these disparities more apparent and undoubtedly exacerbated them’.
The findings point to a raft of recommendations including the need to develop ‘risk assessment tools that can be employed in a variety of occupational settings and used to reduce the risk of employee’s exposure to and acquisition of Covid-19’. This is especially true for those in ethnic minority groups working frontline jobs including health and social care roles, putting them at higher risk of contracting coronavirus, said the report based on stakeholder engagement with 4,000 people.
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It added: ‘The unequal impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities may be explained by a number of factors ranging from social and economic inequalities, racism, discrimination and stigma, occupational risk, inequalities in the prevalence of conditions that increase the severity of disease including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma.
‘Unpacking the relative contributions made by different factors is challenging as they do not all act independently. The engagement sessions highlighted the BAME group’s deep concern and anxiety that, if lessons are not learnt from this initial phase of the epidemic, future waves of the disease could again have severe and disproportionate impacts.’
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At the weekend, Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy said it was a ‘scandal’ that the recommendations in the study had been ‘buried’, as the Government was accused of holding back this second PHE report when a first study on the issue was published at the start of June.
The original report looked at why people from BAME communities may be at higher risk from Covid-19 but made no recommendations and made no reference to the 17 sessions held with stakeholders.
The British Medical Association (BMA) sent a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Saturday asking why the pages with recommendations had been ‘omitted’ from the first publication.
The latest report says that stakeholders ‘expressed deep dismay, anger, loss and fear in their communities about the emerging data and realities of BAME groups being harder hit by the Covid-19.’
They pointed to the racism and discrimination experienced by non-white key workers ‘as a root cause affecting health, and exposure risk and disease progression risk’.
The study said there are issues in some ethnic communities of stigma and fears of being diagnosed with coronavirus.
It added: ‘For many BAME groups, lack of trust of NHS services and healthcare treatment resulted in their reluctance to seek care on a timely basis, and late presentation with disease.’
Stakeholders called for immediate improvement in housing to reduce inequalities, and ‘targeted messaging on smoking, obesity and improving management of common conditions including hypertension and diabetes’.
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Other recommendations included better data collection about ethnicity and religion – including these details on death certificates and making health risk assessments for BAME workers mandatory.
They also suggested culturally sensitive public health messaging so more people, particularly those who may not speak English as a first language, can follow advice on how to protect themselves from Covid-19.
The report did not look at whether genetics plays a role in BAME risk.
Responding to the publication Labour’s Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary Marsha de Cordova said: ‘This report provides even more evidence of the structural and racial inequalities which have led to the Covid-19 pandemic hitting BAME communities across the UK so very hard. And these recommendations should never have been blocked in the first place.
‘Thousands of people and organisations have made it clear that urgent, collaborative and decisive action is needed. The Government cannot make the same mistakes if there is a second wave of coronavirus.’
Commenting on the report president of the Royal College of Physicians professor Andrew Goddard said: ‘The second part of PHE’s review once again shows how Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted those from BAME communities and widened health inequalities even further.
‘It remains unclear to us why this element of the report did not accompany the earlier PHE review.
‘Now that we have these recommendations, they must be placed at the core of both the NHS and the Government’s plans to restart services, as well as plans for further Covid-19 outbreaks.
‘There is no time for complacency, and leaders at all levels should be made accountable for delivering these recommendations and regularly reporting on progress.’
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Associate Professor in Clinical Data Science and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at UCL’s Institute of Health Informatics Dr Amitava Banerjee said the study ‘confirms the observation of excess mortality in BAME people, especially in black communities’.
He pointed to a range of pre-existing data including Office for National Statistics figures suggesting Black African and Black Afro-Caribbean people are ‘at least 50-100% more likely to die from Covid-19 than their white counterparts, depending on ethnicity and ‘other factors.
Dr Banerjee added: ‘The stakeholder engagement suggests that pre-existing social and economic inequalities are being exacerbated and are likely to be more important in the excess COVID-19 deaths in BAME individuals than pre-existing health inequalities.
‘Importantly, there are structural barriers which BAME communities have faced, including access to protective equipment and less ability to complain about it. Trust and fairness were seen by many to be the most important levers to improve the status quo.
‘Overall the excess deaths in BAME people due to COVID-19 are due not only to racism, but much more to do with ethnic inequalities in the social and economic determinants of health, which require urgent action.
‘Therefore the solutions have to be both short- and long-term. I do not see what further reports and commissions can add beyond these detailed data.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYmh0dHBzOi8vbWV0cm8uY28udWsvMjAyMC8wNi8xNi9yYWNpc20taGF2ZS1wdXQtYmFtZS1wZW9wbGUtaGlnaGVyLXJpc2stZHlpbmctY29yb25hdmlydXMtMTI4NjIwOTkv0gFmaHR0cHM6Ly9tZXRyby5jby51ay8yMDIwLzA2LzE2L3JhY2lzbS1oYXZlLXB1dC1iYW1lLXBlb3BsZS1oaWdoZXItcmlzay1keWluZy1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy0xMjg2MjA5OS9hbXAv?oc=5
2020-06-16 20:00:54Z
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