Covid inequality

The Covid-19 pandemic has, of course, had a major impact on everyone, but has thrown the economic race divide into sharp relief. Official statistics and surveys have shown that BAME people have suffered disproportionately from Covid-19 in terms of incidence and of serious illness and death.

This cannot be put down to some kind of predisposition to disease, according to analysis by the Runnymede Trust and Institute for Public Policy Research. This made clear that co-morbid diseases such as heart disease, lung disease and diabetes cannot explain the inequality, noting that “there is no genetic basis for race or ethnicity.”

Health agency Public Health England (due to be replaced by a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection) has shown that the higher incidence and severity of Covid among BAME people is partly because they work disproportionately in occupations with high risk of exposure.

The TUC emphasises the higher levels of job insecurity among BAME workers (see above), which makes it harder for them to, for example, take time off work to shield or to insist on safe work with adequate protection. Its research also suggests that, even within the same workplace, BAME staff have less secure access to personal protective equipment and many feel they are being pushed into the higher risk roles or areas.

Covid inequalities and how to address them are looked at in more detail in Chapter 7.