There is a wealth of evidence showing that people from most minoritised ethnic groups have much poorer health than the White British group. These studies have shown that not only do ethnic inequalities in health exist, but that they have persisted over time, and are exacerbated in later life.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of us. Millions across the country have acquired or been diagnosed with the infection, with thousands suffering its debilitating medium and long-term effects.
In recent times, there has been greater awareness of Black History Month. Dr Chuks Nwuba, a speciality doctor in eating disorders, argues that this should be leveraged to improve the mental health stigma endemic in the Black community.
COVID-19 has painfully exposed the devastating impact inequalities in our society can have. With the benefit of hindsight, we cannot afford to leave our ethnic minorities communities behind this winter. Dr Halima Begum, CEO of the Runnymede Trust, on the case for door-to-door vaccination units.
My own interest in health and ethnicity was sparked only a few years ago, not because of my NHS role, but due to a life-transforming experience taking part in the BBC1 documentary ‘My Family, Partition & Me’ in 2017.
Experimental statistics, published earlier this week by the ONS, suggest that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic ethnic minority people had lower mortality rates and longer life expectancies than White people. Although received with some surprise, these findings were not unexpected. They reflect earlier analysis of mortality rates during the Covid-19 pandemic, which showed the now well-known higher rates of Covid-19 related mortality for ethnic minority people, but lower overall mortality rates.
My interest in equality first started in the 1980s. It was a wish of my parents for me to receive a ‘good education’. I was one of only four Black pupils in middle and high school, one that had changed from a boys’ grammar to a comprehensive. I could clearly see staff and teachers struggling with the new intake of Black faces that looked very different from other children; it was around then that I started, indirectly, forming questions about equality whilst facing the stark realisation about what difference meant.
For most of us, agency is something that, until recently, was easy to take for granted. In normal life, we make hundreds of choices every day and feel, for the most part, that decisions regarding our life and our health are ours to make. In other words, we feel free.
