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Nearly 60,000 more deaths from coronavirus could have occurred in England and Wales if whites faced the same risk as blacks, according to a damning report.
Data has shown that blacks are two and a half times more likely to die from Covid-19 than whites, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Runnymede Trust said this is because blacks face inequalities that leave them more exposed and vulnerable to disease.
These include uneven social conditions, such as public jobs that force them to interact with strangers more frequently, and crowded housing, where social distancing is impossible. Minorities also face unequal access to health care and structural and institutional racism, according to the report.
Its authors called for ethnicity to be considered a risk factor when deciding who should be prioritized for Covid-19 testing along with age, gender, occupation, and underlying health conditions.
The IPPR report said that 35,000 more could have died if white people faced the same risk as the South Asian population, which is statistically one and a half times more likely to succumb to Covid-19 than white people.
White people have a lower risk of dying from coronavirus than other ethnic groups in the UK, says ONS. Black men are 3.3 times more likely to succumb to the disease than white men.
This graph, made with data from the ONS, shows the risk of death when comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes and deprivation are controlled for in the sample.
The report suggests that more than 2,500 deaths of black people could have been prevented if they did not have this additional risk, or 58,000 additional deaths could have occurred if white people had the same level of risk.
It also suggests that the prevalence of underlying conditions, such as lung disease, obesity, and diabetes, accounts for only a very small part of the increased risk for ethnic groups.
Think-tanks believe that the main factors are likely to be unequal social conditions, such as employment and housing, unequal access to health care, and structural and institutional racism.
This is supported by recent figures from the ONS, which suggest that the increased risk cannot be fully explained by pre-existing health conditions and is more strongly linked to socioeconomic factors.
Overcrowding is believed to play a role, and government figures show that nearly one in three Bangladeshi families live in overcrowded housing, compared to 15% of black African households and 2% of British white households.
People from ethnic minority communities were 18 percent less likely to be aware of the government’s “stay-at-home” messages, the Runnymede Trust said, suggesting a communication breakdown.
Think tanks want temporary accommodation to be offered to people who need to isolate themselves but cannot because of their living situation.
Financial support for self-isolating people should be available to everyone, including those without established immigration status, and clearer messages should be directed at vulnerable populations to encourage them to seek medical care.
Parth Patel, an IPPR researcher and lead author of the report, said little has been done to combat the uneven impacts of the pandemic, months after they became apparent.
He said: ‘We cannot eliminate all the effects of structural and institutional racism overnight.
“But we can and must take practical steps now to better protect ethnic minority communities, help people isolate themselves, and ensure that access to healthcare is less unequal in the dangerous winter months ahead.”
Dr Halima Begum, director of the Runnymede Trust, said there ‘can be no justification’ for the projection of 58,000, adding: ‘If that number doesn’t give the government reason to sit down, listen and take action, I don’t know what will do ‘. ‘
She said: ‘I am repeatedly asked if Covid-19 is a’ racist disease ‘. It is not. But it prevails in a society that is plagued by structural inequalities whose roots are firmly rooted in race and ethnicity.
“As we move into what promises to be a long and challenging winter, we cannot continue to ignore these inequalities. For the government to do so would be condemning thousands of black and ethnic minority people to unnecessary death. “
There have been greater cuts in public health budgets in more ethnically diverse communities, reducing the quality of services available.
This graph shows that 7.3 percent of people admitted to intensive care from the ER are black, while 3.5 percent are white and 2.8 percent are Asian.
The government has prioritized coronavirus testing by profession after the system was overwhelmed when children returned to school in the early fall term.
Hospital patients come first, followed by nursing home residents and staff, NHS staff, those in outbreak and surveillance studies, and teachers.
The UK completed more than 300,000 tests yesterday, still somewhat far from the rapidly approaching target of 500,000 per day by the end of this month.
Previous research has found that Black and Asian people are more likely to die from coronavirus because they tend to live in poorer environments and have public jobs, where the risk of contracting the disease is higher.
Manchester Academics said in a report published earlier this month, commissioned by Sadiq Khan, that black people are almost twice as likely to die from the virus after analyzing data from local and national sources.
A study published on September 24 found that BAME people are not genetically more at risk of contracting the virus, suggesting that the death rate is due to other factors instead.
Researchers from Public Health England said that BAME people are two to three times more likely to die from the virus than other members of the population after analyzing NHS data.
They said pre-existing medical conditions and environmental factors are more likely to blame for the increased risk.
