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The disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on ethnic minority, Asian and black communities is an “avoidable crisis” fueled by systemic racism, according to a review.
The author, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, said the disease “thrived on” structural inequalities within government, health, employment and the education system.
Overcrowded housing and public works have made it difficult Bame people to avoid virus, while many have suffered from “shameful racism,” fueled in part by world leaders calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus,” according to the review.
Baroness Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racist attack in 1993, wrote: “Black, Asian, and ethnic minority people have been overexposed, under-protected, stigmatized and overlooked during this pandemic, and this has been for generations.
“The impact of COVID is not random, but predictable and inevitable, the consequence of decades of structural injustice, inequality and discrimination that ruins our society.
“We are in the middle of an avoidable crisis. And this report is a rallying cry to break that clear and tragic pattern.”
If immediate action is not taken, more people “will die unnecessarily,” he warned.
The review says people have been ‘overexposed, under-protected, stigmatized and overlooked’
Baroness Lawrence urged ministers to remind employers that they had a legal obligation to register COVID-19 deaths caused by occupational exposure.
They should also be required to post coronavirus risk assessments on a government portal and provide the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), the review adds.
The government is also urged to suspend the “no recourse to public funds” rule, which prevents some migrants from accessing state assistance, and to provide support to anyone struggling to isolate themselves, Baroness Lawrence said.
The review also recommends a plan to address the rise in hate crimes and scapegoating.
Baroness Lawrence’s findings were welcomed by the Labor leader Sir keir starmer, who commissioned the study.
He said failure to act on the recommendations “would leave many of our fellow citizens seriously exposed during the winter.”
The shadow minister for Women and Equality, Marsha de Córdova, accused the ministers of “again not understanding that race is a social determinant of health.”
In June, a report by Public Health England (PHE) said factors such as racism and social inequality may have contributed to an increased risk of BAME communities contracting and dying from COVID-19.
But last week, Dr. Raghib Ali, a newly appointed expert scientific advisor to the government, suggested that ethnicity was not as influential as factors such as employment and housing.
A government spokesman defended their record, saying they “continue to take steps to address the disparities that exist in society.”
The spokesperson continued: “Current evidence shows that a variety of factors put different groups at increased risk of infection and death from COVID-19, from workplace exposure to pre-existing health conditions.
“For this reason, we must be careful to identify the root causes of the disparities we are seeing and not assume they are evidence of discrimination or unfair treatment in public services like the NHS.
“In fact, many of the factors identified in the report also affect non-ethnic groups.
“We will continue to carry out this work, to ensure that we do everything possible to protect those most at risk.”
