Analysis. The British government’s response to the coronavirus epidemic was questionable, to say the least, far too slow. The official death toll testifies to this: almost 38,000 dead as of May 28, but rather 55,000 if we refer to the "excess deaths" recorded in the country since the start of the epidemic. However, if there is one area where the UK has shone, it is in the production of statistics and epidemiological studies.
Abundance of field data, relevance of samples, responsiveness: the existence of an effective independent national statistics agency (ONS), a highly centralized hospital system (NHS) and an exceptional academic ecosystem – Oxford , Cambridge, Imperial College, etc. – explains this excellence. Keeping registers by ethnicity has also made it possible to highlight risk factors that are difficult to detect in France, where these identifications are prohibited.
What do these multiple studies show, which is difficult to contest? That all British people are not equal before the disease. The virus has certainly touched the heart of power, at the risk of destabilizing it at the end of March. Prime Minister Boris Johnson nearly died, spending three days in intensive care and staying nearly a month away from Downing Street. Lack of precautions or luck? This episode hides another reality. The Covid-19 has killed many more in the poorest areas of the country and among the “BAME” (“Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic”), populations providing large contingents of essential workers, on the front line to maintain activity , only in the chic and white districts of the capital.
The most disadvantaged areas most affected
On May 7, the NSO released data on deaths in England and Wales from March 2 to April 10. It emerged that, for the same age group and the same socio-economic environment, black men and women are still 1.9 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than whites. The risk factor is 1.8 for men of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin, and 1.6 for women of these same origins.
A finding corroborated by the results of the Opensafely project, based on medical data from 17 million people residing in the United Kingdom (of which 5,683 died from Covid-19 in hospitals between 1er February and April 25). Once risk factors such as age, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or obesity, black and Asian people have been ruled out are still 60% to 70% more likely to die than whites.
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