Blacks and Asians at High Risk of Acquiring Covid, Meta-Research Discoveries | World News

Studies highlighting the disproportionate effects of the disease on different groups of society show that people with a black and Asian background are at significantly higher risk of transmitting the coronavirus than whites.

Blacks are twice as likely to be infected with the coronavirus as whites, and people from Asia are 1.5 times more likely, researchers reported medical records of about 19 million Covid patients, 50 studies I found it after analyzing.

Analysis published in the journal Clinical medicine The first comprehensive and systematic review of published research and preliminary papers by Lancet, which delves into the burden of coronaviruses on various ethnic groups. About half of the papers are published in peer-reviewed journals, and the rest are preliminary findings.

Beyond the increased risk of infection, the review suggests that people with Asian backgrounds are more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit and may be at higher risk of death from coronavirus than whites. I am. However, the researchers warned that none of the studies on intensive care unit admission were peer-reviewed and that the increased risk of death was only a statistically significant borderline.

Manish Parrique, an associate clinical professor of infectious diseases at the University of Leicester, said the combined message from the study was that the imbalanced effects of the coronavirus on blacks and Asians were caused by the high risk of infection in these communities. Said it was.

Dramatically different infection rates are believed to be caused by a variety of factors, including higher levels of deprivation, living in larger multi-generational households, and doing more public work when telecommuting is not an option. Has been done.

According to Parrique, the findings call for an urgent need for a more targeted public message to reduce the risk of infection and encourage people to receive early medical assistance before they get sick. Revealed. “It’s about trying to make sure that interventions are available early on, which allows people to seek advice and care early on,” he said.

The research team screened 1,500 published articles and preprints before focusing their analysis on 50 papers published in the United States and the United Kingdom. The study appeared between December 1, 2019 and August 31, 2019. Patients with Covid were positive for the virus swabs or had clinical signs and symptoms of infection.

last month Report from the National Bureau of Statistics Men from black Africa in England and Wales said they were almost three times more likely to die from Covid than white men. Women with a black Caribbean background are almost twice as likely to die as white women. The ONS study concluded that life arrangements and work were the main drivers of increased mortality, rather than existing health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

The big difference in Covid risk poses a serious problem to the government as the NHS is preparing to launch a huge effort to deploy the vaccine. The first effort may be approved by regulators within a few weeks. Elderly people are the most important risk factor for dying from coronavirus, but there is controversy over prioritizing blacks and Asians in each age group.

“These are very difficult decisions that need to be made by the government and the Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization (JCVI) until the vaccine becomes more widely available,” said Pareek. ..

At the 10th press conference on Wednesday, Professor Wei Shen Lim, chair of JCVI’s Covid vaccination group, said that multiple social and occupational factors contributed to Covid’s disease in people with black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. Said behind the heavier burden of. “One of the opportunities we should take in this vaccination program is to alleviate health inequality,” he said. “It may mean that there is a special implementation program provided by a community leader who understands the community.”

Nishi Chaturvedi, a professor of clinical epidemiology at University College London, who was not involved in the latest study, confirmed most of the concerns raised throughout the pandemic that minority ethics groups were at high risk of infection. Said. But she said it was important to investigate the risks of more tightly defined groups, such as Asians and Chinese in India, rather than grouping them together. “We know that the factors of exposure and susceptibility vary significantly between groups,” she said.

Chaturvedi added that ethnicity is an inaccurate surrogate for real risk factors. For example, ethnic minority people are more likely to work in high-risk occupations such as health and social care and are more likely to have comorbidities such as diabetes.

When it comes to prioritizing people to be vaccinated, she said, “it seems wise to prioritize” true “risk factors that increase risk, rather than inaccurate agents.” “I’m also wondering if there is the ability and strong scientific basis to create such a good prioritization group. Among older people, men at high risk of infection, or long covids. Should women who are prone to become ill be prioritized? Should people with diabetes be prioritized over those with established cardiovascular disease? Should people in multigenerational households be prioritized? “