"COVID-19 has exposed a pre-existing underlying health condition in our society."

In a Press Release today Movement for Justice and Reconciliation has made a call for urgent action from the government on the disproportionate number of BAME people dying from COVID-19. Chair Alton Bell says: "Although underlying health conditions may have contributed to the disproportionate number of deaths, too few people have recognised that social inequality and the legacy of enslavement are also major contributory factors." MJR has produced research that shows the links to enslavement in the descendants and in our modern society. Read the full release here.

In this article Afua Hirsch contends that immigration "has always been a byword for the problem of people who are racialised as undesirable, whether they were born here or not".

The Windrush brought less than 500 West Indians in 1948. In that same time period 200,000 eastern Europeans and 100,000 Irish immigrants also came to Britain, yet the former "remains such a symbol of profound soul searching for the national identity" and is regarded as "a turning point in the fabric of the nation’s identity". The latter is barely remembered at all.

Hirsch goes on to reference the area of South West London where she lives. It is known as the 'biltong belt' due to the high numbers of white South African, Australian and New Zealander immigrants. This had the same impact as immigration anywhere, yet "this immigration is never weaponised as a threat to the national heritage, or as a reason for pre-existing communities to flee. This immigration has been largely unproblematic because it is white, English-speaking and less visibly 'other'”.

In 1962 Home Secretary Rab Butler, said the Commonwealth Immigration Act was a law whose “restrictive effect is intended to, and would in fact, operate on coloured people almost exclusively”. Today’s governments are more subtle in their language, yet blatant examples of contemporary racism, such as the Windrush scandal, have "exposed a historical continuity that infects the entire immigration system."

"The sooner we acknowledge that legacy, and dispense with the fantasy that immigration has nothing to do with race, the sooner we will be able to consign this ongoing, abhorrent injustice to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.

Read the full article.

In this article Dr Jenan Younis outlines a number of factors contributing to the disproportionately high number of deaths among NHS doctors and carers from BAME communities. She points to an inequality in workplace culture which results in BAME doctors being expected to do more, and not to complain. "There is evidence from the BMA and GMC that Bame doctors are much less likely to complain about issues regarding safety born from a concern of having to face recriminations or reprisals in comparison to their white counterparts." In the present crisis this results in colleagues being "fearful for their own safety without adequate PPE but equally fearful of the repercussions of speaking out."

This inequality is rooted in discrimination. "The medical profession is certainly no stranger to discrimination, a GMC-commissioned independent report highlighted that Bame medical professionals are likely to be treated differently and undersupported by their peers. It seems this is a discussion we as a profession are afraid to have."

While acknowledging that there is a debate going on about this issue, Dr Younis is not optimistic that it or the promised inquiry will lead to any lasting change. "All that will change is that many individuals such as myself will undergo a stark realisation that the value of being “ethnic” in this society is to serve and be sacrificed"

​Read the full article. Photo: Amged El-Hawrani is just one of the many Bame care workers to have died.

This 'Exclusive' in Nursing Times interviews Carol Cooper, head of equality, diversity and human rights at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, who said BME nurses feel that the bias that "existed before" is now influencing their being appointed to Covid-19 wards, and exposed to patients with Covid "over and above their colleagues".

Ms Cooper warned the pandemic is “shining a light on the inequities which are part of the system in which we exist”. 

“Many of us knew that BME people would be overrepresented - given their proportion of the population - in the mortality and morbidity figures because of the comorbidities that exist in our communities, because of the location of our communities in terms of the workforce being on the frontline [and] because of the amount of people that are caught in the poverty trap and live in households that have higher occupancy”.

“There is all sorts of multiple deprivations that people are subject to now and I think Covid is throwing a light on the cracks in society and I think we’re going to have to rethink how we exist as a society, how we care for one another, how we care for the most vulnerable people in our society.”

Read the full article here.

This 'Letter from Britain' by Joan Blaney details the ways in which existing discrimination and inequalities in British society have been exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. "Social and economic inequalities continue to be burning injustices, with black people experiencing high unemployment rates, less security in work, lower wages, and poorer housing.  Such issues are a major threat to our long-term health and well-being and are readily exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While government policies are to be observed by all to help slow the spread of the virus, they nonetheless bring deeper social and economic pain to many black people, particularly those in disadvantaged communities."

One example quotes a report by SHELTER which says Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are "disproportionately likely to suffer from poor housing and seven times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions than white households. Social isolation therefore is not practicable in these circumstances." Additionally, as the majority of black people are mainly employed in manual and frontline caring jobs, they will find it harder, if not impossible, to work from home.

The article also points to the disproportionately higher non-white deaths from Covid-19 and links to underlying health issues such as malnutrition, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease, which are more prevalent in the black community. "Attention should be paid to these underlying conditions to minimise such disastrous statics in the future." Read the full article here.

You Clap for Me Now is a coronavirus poem on racism and immigration in Britain. This video featuring UK residents and people of foreign heritage reciting the poem highlights the crucial role immigrant workers are playing in the Covid-19 outbreak. Many of these workers would fail the criteria set out in the recent release by the Government of guidance for its post-Brexit points-based immigration policy.

A lot is being written currently about how the health, social and economic impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic are having a much bigger impact on the poor in both the UK snd USA, a section of the population in with BAME people are already over-represented. As seems to be the case with any crisis, the basic inequalities in Western societies are thrown into sharp relief. The same could be said of course of the impact of the virus on underdeveloped countries of the world. For further reading here are several recent articles and quotes.

Afua Hirsch writing in the Guardian asks: "If coronavirus doesn't discriminate, how come black people are bearing the brunt?" A study of 2000 critical ill patients in the UK shows 35% are BAME: twice the representation in the wider population. Afua cites the #CharitySoWhite urgent call for action over the disproportionate impact of the virus on Britain’s minorities. Read the full article.

A letter in today's Independent from Deryck Browne Chief executive, African Health Policy Network, states: Inequality means some are suffering more than others from this pandemic. This government hypocritically claps the same frontline staff that it decimated with its austerity cuts, wage freezes and fiscal responsibility. The communities that suffered when local authority budgets were cut, Sure Start centres closed and charities’ funds slashed are proving to be the same communities likely most vulnerable to contracting the virus." Read more here.

In the USA Bernie Sanders has said ‘Systemic racism’ is behind higher African American deaths amid growing evidence that people of colour, especially African Americans, make up a disproportionate number of people being infected or killed by the virus. Read the full article.

According to an Associated Press analysis  of the USA's 13,000 deaths thus far about 3.300 or 42% were black, double the proportion of African Americans in the total population in the areas covered by the analysis. Read more here.

BBC News 9/4/20: “It is New York’s poorest districts heavily populated with African-Americans and Hispanics that are being hardest hit by this health and economic crisis”. 
“When you’re in one of the poorest communities in the country, it already was a challenge... What people are watching right now is what happens when you don’t invest in addressing poverty for generations.” Michael Blake, New York State Assemblyman.

On Thursday April 9 the government published guidance for its UK points-based immigration system. Not surprisingly, given the current Coronavirus crisis, this has gone largely unnoticed. Was that the idea?

Under the new regime prospective migrants to the UK are required to obtain “points” to qualify for a visa, many of which depend on the applicant being offered a salary of more than £25,600. This means workers classed as low skilled will be largely excluded from entry – which means many of those in retail or social care who are now classified as "key workers" in the response to Coronavirus. People such as delivery drivers, farm and supermarket workers, home-care assistants, hospital porters and cleaners.

Sophia Wolpers, immigration policy manager at London First, said: “The current crisis has shown just how vitally important workers previously deemed lower skilled are to the UK economy as a whole. The government should revisit its proposals in the days and weeks ahead.” Read more here and here.

CharitySoWhite is a people of colour led campaign group set up in 2019 seeking to tackle institutional racism in the charity sector. Its vision is of "a charity sector that is taking the lead on tackling and rooting out racism". They recently published this position paper looking at how Covid-19 and its social and economic impacts will disproportionately effect BAME communities.

'Racial Injustice in the Covid-19 Response' states: "Without a purposeful, intersectional approach centring Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities the current outbreak of COVID-19 will lead to severe consequences and will further entrench racial inequalities in our society". 5 key issues are identified:

1. Health inequalities - BAME groups remain over-represented in the “at-risk” communities identified by the Government, which is concerning given the racialised access and treatment within the UK health system
2. Emergency measures legislation - The lack of guidance around emergency measures, such as police powers and school closures is already leading to local variation and disproportionate impact on BAME communities
3. Risk of destitution - BAME communities are over-represented in key worker categories, as well as over-represented in low income groups with lower rates of home ownership
4. Hostile environment - The hostile environment and particularly No Recourse to Public Funds is preventing migrants from accessing basic rights during the crisis
5. Protection and Enforcement - The concern about increases in domestic violence, the rights of those currently in prison or detention, and increased attacks against East Asians.

Read the full paper here.

This article by Runnymede Trust Deputy Director Dr Zubaida Haque looks at existing societal inequalities and how the impact of COVID-19 will affect black and minority ethnic communities. "We are living in extraordinary times, where we have been caught off-guard by a global health crisis, which puts into sharp relief the existing inequalities in our societies."

The health, social and economic impact of the pandemic  will affect ethnic and gender groups to different degrees. In the UK, Black and ethnic minority (BME) people are among the poorest socio-economic groups and structural inequalities place these groups at much higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, as well as experiencing harsher economic impacts from government measures to slow the spread of the virus. BME communities experience higher rates of child poverty and ill-health and are more likely be employed in precarious work and live in poor housing conditions compared to their white British peers. Read the full article here.