ONS figures now reveal much lower death rates for all ethnic groups at the start of the pandemic
People from ethnic minorities no longer have a particularly higher risk of death from covid-19 than white Britons, for the first time in the pandemic.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that Covid-19-related death rates are now particularly low for all ethnic teams at the start of the pandemic.
Experts recommend that this may be due only to adjustments in exposure to the virus, vaccination, herbal immunity levels, and the severity of Covid variants.
During the first and momentary waves of the pandemic, between January 2020 and January 2021, ethnic minority teams had a particularly higher covid-19 death rate than white Britons.
“In the first wave and at the time, the differences in mortality were largely due to sociodemographic factors. The main explanation for why these differences differ in the risk of infection,” said Vahé Nafilyan, chief statistician at the ONS.
During the era of successive lockdowns, other people from ethnic minorities were more likely to be exposed to the virus, as they were more likely to be key personnel or to live in multigenerational households. and black Caribbeans, according to ONS figures.
Covid deaths decreased through waves 3 and 4, known as Alpha and Delta waves, ethnic disparities remained.
“The Delta wave coincided with the launch of the vaccination campaign, where vaccine uptake decreased greatly in some groups, such as Caribbean black groups and African blacks, compared to the British white group,” Nafilyan said. “One of our studies found that, to a large extent, those differences in vaccination explained the differences in mortality. “
Research has shown that the Omicron variant causes less severe disease than Delta.
“Most sensibly, you have the fact that more and more people are immune because they have already been infected. So what hasn’t been replaced during the Omicron era is the vaccination gap. It’s declined among organizations, but it’s still there,” Nafilyan said. “You would expect a less vaccinated organization to have the highest death rates, and what we’re locating is that this is not the case. So why? We can’t say for sure from the data.
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He added: “I don’t think we can do anything yet to speculate, however, I think it’s good news because the death rate has decreased considerably. “He said more studies are needed to look at the immunity point in other teams and see if teams with lower vaccination levels had a higher point of infection.
Kit Yates, director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath, said it was unclear what the calculation points of the newer figures were. teams at the beginning of the pandemic, when we were actively seeking to control transmission. I suspect they have now largely dissipated given the unmitigated spread scenario we’ve been in for about a year. “
He said another option was that the effect of vaccines was diminishing. “We know there are disparities in vaccine use between ethnic groups. However, the combination of declining vaccine coverage and most other people now having more than a year since their last vaccine would likely have leveled this playing field. “
Dr Habib Naqvi, chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said: “While those are estimated figures that need to be explored further, taken at face value, they point to the effect COVID-19 has had on Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities. The disproportionate impact in terms of serious illness, hospital admissions and mortality rates in diverse communities has been significant, and the critical importance of addressing the root causes of long-standing ethnic and racial inequalities has resurfaced. in the physical form of our population. These inequalities are still in place today and will have to be tackled head-on.