Is COVID 19 Racist?

While it was previously thought that viruses, or any pathogen affects everybody equally, recent data about the novel corona virus begs to differ. This is especially true for the BAME community (Black, Asian and minority ethnic).

As the number of deaths worldwide continue to increase (standing at 149,000 as of April 17th), it seems the virus is disproportionately affecting the BAME community. In the US more than 35,000 have lost their lives to the virus, and in the state of Louisiana more than 70% of deaths were of African Americans. This deserves more attention than it is currently receiving. In Chicago, 30% of the community are Black. However more than 70% of its deaths occurred, were of the black community.

Some argue the reasons for this, especially in the States is that these individuals face a higher risk to exposure of the virus as they tend to live in more concentrated urban areas, and work more in essential industries. Only 20% of black workers were eligible to work from home in the States. Other risk factors for developing Covid-19 include obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, which are all common risk factors found amongst black Americans.

Here in the UK we have a similar story. NHS data shows more patients from ethnic backgrounds have presented in critical care units, up and down the country. However there is minimal comprehensive data on this issue, NHS England and Public Health England have vowed to look into why ethnic minorities appear to be affected more. Statistics for healthcare workers who became victims of the deadly virus also show supporting evidence- of the 53 NHS staff members that have died in the pandemic, 68% were BAME, while the proportion of BAME workers in the NHS is 44%.

Although, more data is necessary to get to the bottom of this. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the head of the British Medical Association (BMA) gave an interview with the Guardian and said, “At face value, it seems hard to see how this can be random”. As a result, the Guardian mentioned that Public Health England was collating and analysing data in this regard, but did not mention how long it will take to publish their data. Rachel Logan, Amnesty UK’s law and human rights programme director said that a government review was needed, and has to be transparent: “There’s been much talk of how coronavirus is a ‘great leveller’. But these figures appear to show that some communities are suffering more than others…It is essential that the government ensures it is properly investigating why”.

While we cannot come to direct conclusions just yet, one thing is clear- the BAME community is clearly being more affected than other communities, although the only way to derive a substantial answer, is through the collection and analysis of more data.