Is the higher death rate linked to poverty, including poor living and working conditions?
On 7th May 2020, The Guardian newspaper published a report from an Office for National Statistics( ONS) survey in the Uk that Black people four times more likely to die from Covid-19, It also showed that other ethnic minority communities had been more severely affected proportionally than those from “the white population”. This data covering the period from 2 March to 10 April has to be handled with care like most information sets it needs to be closely analysed and instant generalisations avoided. The impact on the Bangladeshi and Pakistani community was almost as severe with other ethnic groups suffering more severely than most of the population. Once the data is adjusted by the ONS for age, region, rural/urban, IMD decile, household composition, socioeconomic status, and health the four times headline figure reduces to close to two times for Black people and there are similar reductions for the Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian communities.
However, the adjustment for anything other than age needs exploring carefully and requires peer group reviews. Issues such as the social-economic status of an ethnic group are reflective of the marginalisation of a community and are likely to be through a lack of effective participation in British society. Members of minority communities may already be vulnerable with unregistered underlying illnesses, they may have “aged” more through everyday stresses over decades, while the data being used (death certification by doctors) may be skewed in some way. The implication that the higher death rate may be attributable to ethnic differences is profoundly disturbing. The pattern of proportionately higher death rates for minority communities is equally true for both male and female members. For the whole UK population, the ONS March data shows that in the UK 2068 men were registered as dying from COVID 19 and 1304 women died ( 61 % and 39 % respectively). It has been suggested that male and female chromosomes have different capacities to resist viruses.
The New York Times article entitled “Hard hit minority communities struggle to bury the dead” 11 May gives a graphic description of what this means for Birmingham’s Muslim community. Many people are dying a painful death without the dignity of family farewells.
The UK Office for national statistics database shows that Low paid workers more likely to die of COVID 19 than professional workers. It reveals that men working as security guards had one of the highest death rates, at 45.7 fatalities for every 100,000, followed by taxi drivers and chauffeurs (36.4), bus and coach drivers (26.4), chefs (35.9), and sales and retail assistants (19.8). Interestingly, security guards, chauffeurs, taxi drivers, bus and coach drivers have sedentary work environments working in confined spaces with the public. Chefs and sales assistants are often “trapped” in a small space with other workers and the public close by. The data sets show that members of ethnic minority communities are much more likely to be employed in front line services with face to face contact with other workers or customers than in more protected and better paid professional work. Furthermore, they are more likely to live in overcrowded accommodation in cities, while specific cultural factors e.g. family gatherings and religious worship may lead to a high density of people coming together.
The European Network Against Racism ( http://www.enar-eu.org) today published “COVID 19’s impact on racialised communities: an interactive EU-wide map” which may include some valuable comparisons across the EU, helping to provide a deeper understanding. It is crucial to look carefully at the social and economic marginalisation of minorities communities, their lack of full and effective participation in social and economic life and why this is vital to their existence individually and collectively. These right are described eloquently in the second commentary of the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the full and effective participation of minorities in social and economic life. The right to life and the right to dignity in death are fundamental human rights.