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Brits from BAME backgrounds ‘at no greater risk of dying from coronavirus’, Sage docs reveal


PEOPLE from BAME backgrounds are at “no greater risk of dying from the coronavirus” than other communities, researchers have revealed.

Experts from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Liverpool presented the paper to scientists on the government’s SAGE committee.

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 Clinical staff clean and sanitise personal protective equipment at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge
Clinical staff clean and sanitise personal protective equipment at Royal Papworth Hospital in CambridgeCredit: AFP and licensors

The paper detailed that more admissions to hospitals were seen in the BAME community but that the white ethnic group had a higher mortality rate.

Earlier this month it was reported that black Brits were four times more likely to die of Covid-19 than their white counterparts.

It was also found that Bangladeshi and Pakistani people are 50 per cent more likely to die from the virus than white people - with people of Indian and mixed heritage also more at risk.

The Office for National Statistics claimed that “the risk is significantly higher for some of those ethnic groupings compared to the white ethnic grouping”.

But the new research by Professor Ewen Harrison, Dr Annemarie Docherty and Professor Calum Semple states that this is not the case.

They said while there were more intensive care admissions within the BAME community compared to the white group, that they were explained in “differences in patient characteristics such as comorbidity”.


The report stated: “No difference in HDU/ICU admission is seen after adjusting for patient characteristics. The White ethnic group has higher mortality than the BAME group. In robust matched models (propensity-score matched), no excess mortality is seen in the BAME group. 

“Black and Minority Ethnic individuals might be more likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19. BAME groups are more likely to be admitted to HDU/ICU. When patient characteristics are taken into account, no excess HDU/ICU admissions or deaths are seen in the BAME group.”

So far in the UK over 35,000 people have died from the coronavirus and the new research could shed light on how people from various communities are being impacted and on how they should in turn be treated if they contract the illness.

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The clinical study focused on 23,577 patients who had been admitted to hospitals in the UK with Covid-19.

11,690 of the patients were white, 1,135 were 'minority ethnic', 835 were Asian and 568 were black.

The researchers used propensity-score matching to match individuals in the BAME group to individuals with similar characteristics in the white ethnic group.

Of the patients sampled the researchers found that people in BAME groups were younger and more likely to have diabetes - which is one condition many people who contract the virus also have.

It also found that people from the BAME group were less likely to have other comorbidities such as cardiorespiratory disease and conditions such as dementia.

The white group was less likely to be admitted to intensive care.

The researchers added: “Looking at ethnicity in isolation, BAME groups have the same or better survival than the White ethnic group.

“No association was seen between self-defined ethnicity and survival in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 after adjustment for other factors.”


