Racism and health

Abstract

‘ Progress is a nice word, but change is its motivator and change has its enemies. ’ (Robert F Kennedy, 1925–1968) Enhancing and saving life is central to the way in which health professionals approach their work and has underpinned the impressive responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. But all lives are not equal, as we have seen in the way that COVID-19 disproportionally impacts on black Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities and how >60% of health workers who have died are from these backgrounds.1 These differences have too often been laid at the door of epidemiological or lifestyle difference rather than structural racism. If this were the case then it does not explain why a white police officer killed George Floyd, a black African-American, sparking a global anti-racism outrage highlighting …