As the death toll sadly continues to climb, it’s clear Covid-19 spares no one. Young, old, rich, poor, northerner, southerner – everyone is at risk of catching, spreading and potentially succumbing to the coronavirus.
However, this doesn’t mean the impact of this crisis is being felt equally. More and more, the notion that this epidemic is some kind of “great leveller” is being exposed for what it is – a complete myth.
Evidence is emerging of how black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities are being disproportionately affected. Despite making up only 14% of the population, one study has shown that we account for a third of critically ill coronavirus patients in our hospitals.
The reasons behind this disparity are complex and varied. We know BAME people are more likely to be employed in frontline roles – whether it’s in the NHS, as care workers, shelf-stackers or bus drivers. In the NHS, for example, around 40% of doctors and 20% of nurses are from BAME backgrounds. In London, 67% of the adult social care workforce are from BAME backgrounds. This exposure puts them at greater risk of catching the coronavirus in the first place.
But one of the biggest underlying factors driving the disproportionate number of deaths in BAME communities is socioeconomic. It’s an uncomfortable truth that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are overrepresented in poor, overcrowded accommodation, or households with multiple generations under one roof. And it’s a fact that they are more likely to live in poverty or work in precarious and low-paid jobs. Many simply don’t have the luxury of being able to work safely from home during the lockdown. All of this contributes to a BAME population with worse health than average, lower life expectancy and a greater prevalence of serious underlying health conditions, such as heart disease, asthma and diabetes.
With what we already know about Covid-19 and how it attacks those with underlying health conditions, it’s hardly a surprise that those from ethnic-minority backgrounds may be more likely to catch it and, it seems, die.
It’s by no means a revelation that there’s a link between health and socioeconomic inequalities – certainly not for those who live these lives, or for all the charities, campaigners and organisations, including City Hall, that have been fighting these injustices for years. But one of the unexpected consequences of this crisis is that the depth of these inequalities is being laid bare in such a stark fashion.
Of course I welcome the government’s announcement last week to launch a review into why people from BAME backgrounds are being disproportionately affected by Covid-19. But I fear we already know the conclusions of the review, and what action is needed.
What would be particularly useful right now is a commitment to routinely collect and publish data on the demographics of everyone impacted by the coronavirus so that we can understand and act on these concerns. At the moment, we know the age and sex of everyone who contracts and tragically dies from the coronavirus, but we still have little additional reliable information, including about their ethnicity. If the information was collected and published in real time, it would help bring the true scale of the problem to light and provide more evidence about how to protect communities from the virus. Promises to provide this data in the future is not good enough – we need it to be collected and published right now. There simply is no good reason to wait.
There will inevitably be those who say that this has nothing to do with someone’s ethnicity. Even though it can be uncomfortable for some to acknowledge, we cannot ignore the barriers of discrimination and structural racism that exist in our society, which contribute to ethnic minorities being more likely to suffer from poverty, have underlying health conditions and work in insecure, low-paid jobs.
So this must be a wake-up call for our country and a catalyst for far-reaching and fundamental change. I’m a proud Londoner who often talks about how nowhere else in the world could someone from my background – the son of a bus driver, the child of immigrants and someone of Muslim faith – reach the position I have. But I want us to be even better and to live up to our British values of fairness, equality and justice for all.
That’s why, once this crisis is over, we will need to forge a new social contract that advances the twin causes of racial and economic equality, and prioritises the welfare and wellbeing of every single community in this country.
Ultimately, this would be the most fitting tribute we could pay to all the courageous people who have lost their lives on the frontline of this battle. And it would be the only way we can create a country where never again will someone’s race, background or socialeconomic status determine the difference between life and death.