"Much has already been written about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on different population groups within the UK and elsewhere. In the early stages of the pandemic, it became evident that many of the healthcare workers who were dying were from ethnic minority backgrounds. This was confirmed by an analysis that was undertaken by senior clinicians within the National Health Service (NHS) on deaths in healthcare workers up to April 2020. They found that 71% of nurses/midwives and 94% of doctors/dentists who died were from ‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) background'. For reference, at the time of the analysis, ‘BAME staff' constituted 20% of nursing/midwifery and 44% of doctors/dentists in the NHS workforce. At that time, there was speculation that this may have been due to genetic factors or co-morbidities; however, further research into this has shown that there are likely to be wider issues contributing to these differences. Subsequently, a meta-analysis published in the Lancet found that Black and Asian ethnicities were at increased risk of infection compared to White individuals. They also reported that Asian individuals may have been at higher risk of intensive therapy unit admission and possible death, despite adjusting for common confounders such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This finding was limited by the small number of studies that looked at intensive therapy unit admission as an outcome."

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