Coronavirus: 'Structural racism' must be taken into account when dealing with BAME deaths
Professor Fenton says ministers must understand how contextual issues are driving the excess risk amongst the BAME community.
Tuesday 9 June 2020 23:35, UK
"Structural racism and social inequality" should be taken into account when looking at the impact of COVID-19 on Britain's black, Asian and minority ethnic, according to an expert involved in a recent review.
Professor Kevin Fenton was a major part of a Public Health England (PHE) report - ordered by the government - into why the BAME community has been disproportionately affected by coronavirus.
It found people from BAME groups were up to twice as likely to die with COVID-19 than those from a white British background.
The review was also meant to offer recommendations, but sources have told Sky News that these were "held back" by the government.
Speaking at a public meeting for Hackney Council, Prof Fenton said: "Over the last six weeks I've worked with over 4,000 individuals to understand what are some of the contextual issues that are driving the excess risk amongst, black, Asian and minority ethnic groups."
"Social economic deprivation plays a role in vulnerable communities and those vulnerabilities can have a huge impact on how COVID becomes rooted in communities and transmitted and the impact it can have.
"There are factors of risk of exposure to COVID among BAME communities, like occupational risk - if you're a key worker like taxi driver, or bus driver or if you're a key worker likely to be infected from COVID.
"Some of the structural issues, like racism, discrimination, stigma, distrust, fair, these are real issues that are challenging for the communities and are seen as underpinning some of the disparities we see for COVID.
"Any conversation about what we need to do, should take into consideration these things.
"What do we do with this learning and where do we go next? I think of pace and impact, we are coming out of the first phase of the epidemic, we need to make sure our communities are resilient and prepared and learn the lessons for a second wave in the autumn.
"We should be looking at how we engage with culturally competent messages, around prevention, around taking control within communities around the steps they can take to prevent this transmission of COVID."
Prof Fenton's analysis was sent to the government with further recommendations which were not published alongside the report last Tuesday leading to claims details had been "held back" by ministers.
A spokesperson from the Governments Equality Office told Sky News: "Everything that was due to be published was published last week, the minister, Kemi Badenoch, is taking forward work to fill in some of the gaps and judge how best to tackle the various inequalities."