People in Harmony collaborated with Queen Mary University of London which resulted in the publication of the report, “The Mixed Race Community and Covid-19” August 2020.
In Making Mixed Race Matter, People in Harmony worked with two students, Ashwini Ragawan and Tayyibah Rashid, to look at the statistics relating to Covid-19 and the mixed race population to establish if there was disproportionate representation in Covid-19 mortality and morbidity data in a similar way to BAME groups to produce the report.
Around late December 2019, cases of a novel viral infection causing clusters of pneumonia cases across Wuhan, China was brought to international attention. By the 11th of February 2020, the causative virus was officially termed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)1. It has since spread beyond China into every continent with confirmed cases in over 188 territories. According to John Hopkin University, the UK has the 9th highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 303,064 and the 3rd highest number of deaths at 46,046 as of July 2020. However, it should be noted that the UK also accumulated over 59,000 more deaths than normally expected since the lockdown began, implying the direct and indirect implications are more likely to be more profound2.
Since the introduction of the UK government mandated lockdown, plentiful reports and studies have been demonstrating growing evidence that the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups within the UK have increased morbidity and mortality risk from COVID-19, with Black Afro Caribbean, Indians, Pakistani and Bangladeshis with notably high risk. Although there is heavy debate regarding the causative factors, the scientific community acknowledges that the cause is likely to incorporate a combination of cultural and socioeconomic factors, including the higher incidence rates of comorbidities including high blood pressure (>140/80 mmHg), raised BMI (over 25), cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes within these communities.
There is an abundance of data which shows that BAME members are disproportionately represented in COVID-19 mortality and morbidity data. This report aims to find out if there are data sets on mixed race individuals. This reports also aims to explore the experiences of mixed race people and find out if they have been impacted in a similar way to BAME groups, bearing in mind that different groups will have inevitably experienced COVID-19 differently.