{"id":28339,"date":"2021-04-06T13:01:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T12:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28339"},"modified":"2021-04-07T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T18:28:08","slug":"green-light-to-racists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28339","title":{"rendered":"‘Green light to racists’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not genetics, vitamin D, underlying conditions, or lifestyle choices causing disproportionate deaths of black and Asian people from Covid-19. It is poverty and racism, says a report by Doctors in Unite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The death rate for black and Asian people in the UK from Covid-19 is three to four times higher than it is for white people.<\/p>\n

Alternative explanations<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile many experts agree that exposure to the virus is important, others propose alternative explanations, such as genetic differences between races, lifestyle factors, and vitamin D deficiency,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Dr Jackie Applebee, a GP in Tower Hamlets and chair of Doctors in Unite.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn fact, the causes are very clear \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as with almost all other diseases, poverty and racism determine who gets sick and dies most from Covid-19.\u00c2\u00a0 The alternative explanations are simply distractions, do not stand up to scrutiny, and obstruct, confuse and delay efforts to address the underlying causes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

Doctors in Unite have produced an analysis of the underlying causes of the disparities in deaths from Covid-19 by different racial groups in the UK.<\/p>\n

Significantly greater rates<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile not written in response to the Sewell report our report refutes many of the assertions in the Sewell report about why people in almost all ethnic minorities are dying at significantly greater rates than the white majority,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Dr Applebee.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs with criticisms of the Sewell report in general, the section on Covid-19 cherry picks data, provides no evidence for some of its assertions, while in others it directly contradicts well-established facts,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

The government came under fierce criticism after commissioning the Sewell report on racial disparities in the UK, which critics including Unite said failed to take seriously the lived experiences of racism by Black and Asian Ethnic Minority (BAEM) communities.<\/p>\n

The report was completed just before the publication of the government commissioned report into \u00e2\u20ac\u0098racial and ethnic disparities in the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, by a panel chaired by Tony Sewell.<\/p>\n

Denial and indifference<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIts findings are unsurprising given the well-known racism denialist views of Sewell and others on the panel, and is consistent with the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policy of denial and indifference to racism in the UK today,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Dr Applebee.<\/p>\n

Any other plausible reason<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs with other reports which cannot come up with any other plausible reason to explain inconvenient facts about racism, it cites the mantra \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0098more research is needed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Dr Applebee.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt also completely ignores the detailed SAGE report on Covid-19 and ethnicity,<\/a> published in September 2020, perhaps because the SAGE report said that structural racism is central to the racial disparities in deaths from Covid-19,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

The main contention of the report, that structural and institutional racism do not exist, is flatly contradicted by the SAGE report.<\/p>\n

The SAGE report is not mentioned at all in the Sewell report, despite the fact that the committee has much greater expertise.<\/p>\n

No evidence<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur report highlights there is no evidence of genetic causes, as even a cursory examination of death rates in different countries demonstrates.\u00c2\u00a0 There is no evidence that different racial groups adopt more risky behaviours or that their cultural practices put them more at risk of Covid-19, or that lifestyle choices are materially different,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Dr Applebee.<\/p>\n

Detailed work by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has clearly shown that underlying health conditions do not explain the disparities.<\/p>\n

The health section of the report has been roundly condemned by public health and primary care experts who state that it ignores decades of evidence of the causes of racial disparities in health.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUndeniably after correcting for all the other known factors like age, geography, socio-economic factors and underlying health conditions, there are still major differences in death rates for all ethnic minorities, apart from Chinese people. \u00c2\u00a0It is quite clear that institutional and inter-personal racism is responsible for this,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Dr Applebee.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the words of Lady Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence who was murdered by white racists in 1993, the Sewell report \u00e2\u20ac\u0098will give the green light to racists<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in this country,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

By Jody Whitehill<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not genetics, vitamin D, underlying conditions, or lifestyle choices causing disproportionate deaths of black and Asian people from Covid-19. It is poverty and racism, says a report by Doctors in Unite.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1010,1295,669,242,1612],"wps_subtitle":"Report finds poverty and racism to blame for disproportionate BAEM Covid deaths","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28339"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28350,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28339\/revisions\/28350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}