It is clear that Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities are disproportionately affected by Covid-19. A third of critically ill patients, 19% of deaths, and in some local authorities, more than 50% of deaths are among the BAME community, despite making up 15% of the population. The statistics for healthcare workers are even worse; 72% of all health and social care workers and 93% of doctors who have died have been from a BAME background, amplifying concerns of institutional racism and longstanding intersecting inequalities. It is well known that approximately 80% of health outcomes, and therefore inequalities, are socially determined.
The government’s announcement to conduct an enquiry into BAME deaths is welcome, and it must go further. In order to fully understand the drivers of the excess burden of morbidity and mortality on BAME communities from Covid-19, data must be collected and published on key determinants of health which includes protected characteristics as enshrined in the Equality Act 2010. This requires expansion of the current ethnicity grouping and inclusion of data on age, gender, religion, income, employment, education, immigration status, language, disability and co-morbidities as well as local authority, household structure, population density, pollution and social deprivation indices.
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