Thursday 7 May 2020
Diane Abbott and anti-racist campaigners say “no premature end to lockdown” as coronavirus hits BAME communities harder
View and share the campaign statement and signatories HERE
As reports indicate a shift from the “stay at home” coronavirus policy, with an easing of the lockdown and financial reductions of the government’s furlough scheme, expected to be announced on Sunday, anti-racist campaigners are demanding that the lockdown remains given the high infection rate and death toll. The government’s official figures show the UK has the worst death toll in Europe with over 30,000 deaths. However the Financial Times analysis of the Office of National Statistics data puts the deaths figure much higher at 54,300.
Stand up to Racism President and Labour’s Diane Abbott MP said, “This government has never put the public’s health first. We now have the worst death toll in the whole of Europe yet ministers are threatening to force people back to working, including by cutting wage subsidies. This is unacceptable. No-one should be forced to risk death to go to work.”
MPs including Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Dawn Butler, trade union general secretaries and others signed a statement demanding no premature end to the lockdown, highlighting particular concern at the disproportionate impact on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
The statement said: “We are particularly concerned about any premature end to the lockdown in Britain which spuriously seeks to prioritise the economy and profit before controlling the infection and saving lives. Covid-19 infections and deaths have disproportionately impacted Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities who will suffer even more from a premature end to lockdown.”
The statement also calls for a public inquiry, similar to the Macpherson inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s murder, into the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on BAME communities. Public Health England is investigating the issue but the involvement of Trevor Phillips’ consultancy firm has been met with widespread criticism, and the government has not called for a public inquiry.
BAME communities have formed 28 per cent of the overall death toll. The Office of National Statistics reports that black people are four times as likely to die than white people. The Institute of Fiscal Studies showed that overall BAME communities were twice as likely to die.
A recent study found the proportion of BAME deaths in the health service to be 94% among Doctors and Dentists, 71% among nurses and midwives, and 56% among healthcare support workers, despite BAME workers forming the minority of all these categories.
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A Survey by the British Medical Association found the lack of PPE has hit doctors from BAME backgrounds the hardest, with almost double the proportion of BAME doctors feeling pressured to work in situations with inadequate PPE, and only four out of ten white doctors reporting as having adequate protection, a disparity also reflected among nurses.
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Recent figures also show BAME people make up one third of Covid-19 patients in intensive care and double the average of households who have lost jobs and/or income. People from BAME backgrounds make up around 13 percent of the UK population. Yet the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre reported that 35 percent of the first 2000, or so cases of critically ill Covid-19 patients in hospitals in England and Wales came from BAME backgrounds.
Diane Abbott MP added: “I want to stress my support for an independent public inquiry on the subject of COVID-19, Black and Minority Ethnic persons, and the completely disproportionate level of deaths. It should be an independent public inquiry on the lines of the Macpherson Inquiry, and hopefully as significant and transformational.”
View and share the campaign statement HERE
ENDS
For further quotes and information please contact:
info@standuptoracism.org.uk
