Covid-19: Disparate Impact

Lord Singh of Wimbledon Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, we are working closely with the Office for National Statistics and analysts from PHE. I will have to check with them and will write to the noble Baroness in relation to the specific data, which I have to confess I was not aware was out in that form and then not out in that form.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB) [V]]

My Lords, the Statement does little to address the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on minority communities. We already know that ethnic differences linked to diet and lifestyle are important, alongside other causal factors emanating from racism, including crowded housing and economic disparities, leading to a preponderance of black and ethnic minorities in poorly paid jobs in hospitals, the care sector and other overexposed front-line services. Does the Minister agree that the Government should do more to focus on already clear areas of disadvantage, rather than spend millions on more and more costly academic research into the glaringly obvious?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, I hope that I have been clear that what is glaringly obvious is the disparities. The answer to the next question, which is why there are those disparities, is not so glaringly obvious, and we must be careful not to jump to conclusions. As I said, they are partly explained by comorbidities—pre-existing health conditions—but that does not explain them fully. Some of them are explained by socioeconomic and geographical factors. That is why we have issued guidance on multigenerational households and areas of population density where people cannot socially distance properly. However, that does not fully explain the picture. For instance, a British black African man is 2.5 times more likely to die of Covid, but a British black Caribbean man is only 1.7 times more likely to die of Covid. Therefore, unfortunately, there are still gaps in understanding, not of the fact that there are disparities but of what is causing them. Unless we know that, we cannot address them.