Abstract
In the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, do brown lives matter?
Highlights
In The Lancet Global Health, a pioneering study by Pedro Baqui and colleagues[1] confirms in Brazil findings observed in other countries hit hard by COVID-19: that mortality rates from the pandemic differ by geographical region and ethnicity, with disproportionate impact for Black populations and other ethnic minorities.[2,3] We can discuss these findings in the context of the social protests occurring in the past few months against structural racism and to the slogan “Black lives matter”
Using COVID-19 hospital mortality data from SIVEP-Gripe (Sistema de Informação de Vigilância Epidemiológica da Gripe) dataset, Baqui and colleagues did a cross-sectional observational study to assess regional variations in patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospital by state and by two socioeconomically grouped regions
Speculation that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 would have milder transmission in low latitudes has delayed actions in northern regions. These areas face several challenges that directly affect their capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic: shortages of doctors and intensivists; fragile epidemiological surveillance; poorer network of health services than in other regions; and fewer family health teams, hospital beds, and number of intensive care units (ICUs) per inhabitant than in other regions
Summary
In The Lancet Global Health, a pioneering study by Pedro Baqui and colleagues[1] confirms in Brazil findings observed in other countries hit hard by COVID-19: that mortality rates from the pandemic differ by geographical region and ethnicity, with disproportionate impact for Black populations and other ethnic minorities.[2,3] We can discuss these findings in the context of the social protests occurring in the past few months against structural racism and to the slogan “Black lives matter”. Baqui and colleagues found that, compared with White Brazilians, Pardo and Black Brazilians who were hospitalised had significantly higher mortality risk (hazard ratio 1·45, 95% CI 1·33–1·58 for Pardo Brazilians; 1·32, 1·15–1·52 for Black Brazilians).
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