UK expert: Racism not to blame for minorities' COVID risk

LONDON (AP) — A scientist newly appointed as an advisor to the British government has expressed skepticism about focusing on the role of structural racism in the disproportionate effect that the coronavirus has on ethnic minority groups.

“Instead of focusing on ethnicity we need to look at the key underlying risk factors (which are mainly socioeconomic) that are causing their higher death rates — and that will therefore reduce the risk of death in all ethnic groups, including whites,” Dr. Raghib Ali, an epidemiologist at Cambridge University, wrote in the Times.

British officials have in the past few months been looking into why Black people and ethnic minorities have an increased risk of death involving COVID-19. Ali's comments came as officials said Thursday they plan to make it mandatory for ethnicity to be reported in death certificates in order to establish a more complete picture of the impact of the virus on ethnic minorities.

A government report published Thursday, which Ali contributed to, said that the current evidence “clearly shows that a range of socio-economic and geographical factors” - including individuals' jobs, how crowded their houses are, and pre-existing health conditions - contribute to the higher infection and death rates for ethnic minorities. But it said “a part of the excess risk remains unexplained for some groups,” such as Black men.

In June, a Public Health England report stated that historic racism and poorer experiences of healthcare may explain why some people from ethnic minorities are less likely to seek care when needed. The public body said data showed that after accounting for factors like age and sex, Black people and other Asian ethnic minorities were at higher risk of dying due to COVID-19 compared to white British people.

But Ali, who's been appointed the...