It is not enough to talk about the disproportionate number of Covid-19 BAME deaths—we need action

As Covid-19 consumes our planet, in the UK it has disproportionately affected those from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. The news is a wake-up call to many but is met with a sombre nod of known experience from others. Statistics this month show that 19 per cent of deaths that have been recorded thus far are from ethnic minority communities. Given they make up 14 per cent of the nation’s population, that’s an extraordinary amount. Just today a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies found that the death rate for British black Africans and black Pakistani Covid-19 patients is more than 2.5 times than that of the white population.

But if equal access to healthcare, fair pay and criminal justice was offered to ethnic minorities in Britain, would we see this disproportionate result?

Consider the demographics of key workers who are working tirelessly to keep us alive and safe. Around 40 per cent of NHS doctors, 20 per cent of nurses and 21 percent of adult social workers come from BAME backgrounds. With that in mind, it begins to make sense that, last week, it was reported that 72 per cent of all health and social care staff who have died from Covid-19 were black, Asian and minority ethnic.

These statistics are known and we are aware that all healthcare professionals are exposed, but there’s an unspoken bias in all workforces. Nurses from BAME backgrounds feel they’re asked to work on Covid-19 wards more often than their white counterparts, says Carol Cooper, head of equality, diversity and human rights at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust. This week, NHS bosses issued guidance recommending BAME staff be "risk-assessed" and reissued to lower-risk duties.

Even when there isn’t a global pandemic, these workers are still saving lives and exposing themselves to dangerous situations. And if the NHS workforce is disproportionately BAME, then the virus will disproportionately affect these communities.

But it isn’t just health work—we need to look at all key workers. Chaand Nagpaul, head of the British Medical Association, told The Guardian “it seems hard to see how this can be random… You’ve got a high proportion of BAME people not able to stay at home, serving the nation, putting themselves at risk”.

Although not all BAME people are recent immigrants, it is worth mentioning the injustices against those who are. From Theresa May’s hostile environment policies to the new points-based immigration system, the UK has sought to make it nearly impossible for working-class people of colour to come to the country in a documented and safe way. And when they’re here, they’re left at a disadvantage. These people struggle to get proper access to healthcare, tend to live in overpopulated buildings and often work in low-income jobs in the service industry.

Many ethnic minorities have also immigrated with large family groups. People in these communities report a lack of support from the government to properly assimilate. Much of their time is then spent attending religious gatherings and staying in family homes. This makes them all the more vulnerable to this virus—and the lack of support is killing them.

These key workers are the very people who are keeping us alive—the grocery store workers, rubbish collectors, factory workers, postal workers and transport staff. We can’t ignore the absence of class in this discussion—low-income British families are on the forefront too and therein lies the problem. And many of those families are BAME.

They are not getting the support they deserve from our government. While Boris Johnson has expressed gratitude for the NHS nurses who treated him, it is worth remembering that the health service has been persistently underfunded by his very party. And this is all on top of the ongoing Windrush scandal, a rising number of hate crimes, and a persistent ethnicity pay gap.

These injustices will be exacerbated if this inequality is not addressed, and we need to look at the bigger picture. While we continue to fight for our NHS to get PPE and the unregistered deaths of people from care homes to be noted, we need to address the failures of the government and make drastic changes to our legislation. We shouldn’t have to experience disproportionate deaths to rectify prejudices towards black, Asian and minority ethnic people. People have been fighting for their rights for as long as many of us can remember.

At a roundtable with Labour leader Keir Starmer, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Marsha de Cordova MP, and healthcare professionals and community activists last week, participants discussed why Covid-19 disproportionately affected people from BAME backgrounds. Many felt there was an overwhelming feeling of disrespect and lack of communication from the government. There had been no consultation with these communities, some said, on what to expect from a lockdown and how it could affect their customs differently—through religious holidays, funerals and so on.

We need to do better. It’s more urgent than ever to listen to black, Asian and ethnic communities, especially migrants, about how this virus has affected them, and work with them to help neutralise its impact. And beyond the virus, this work needs to be kept up to ensure that these communities are listened to and supported.