How Are Black and Asian People Affected by COVID-19

COVID-19 & ethnicity. Is there a connection?

With COVID-19 progressing more and more every day, there’s a lot of evidence proving that the virus disproportionately affects individuals from different ethnic backgrounds. However, further investigation is still needed in order to find out how these effects influence different ethnic groups.

The study found that one’s ethnicity can make people more exposed to the virus, more prone to contracting it, and more likely to develop a severe form, or all three. According to researchers, some factors such as preexisting health conditions, education, socioeconomic status, employment, genetic discrepancies, and racial inequalities could be the reason that stands behind the increased risk.

However, ethnicity is a very complex factor and more research is needed to support the evidence. According to Dr. Winston Morgan, a Reader in Toxicology and Clinical Biochemistry at the University of East London, United Kingdom, “there is as much genetic variation within racialized groups as there is between the whole human population.”

Therefore, even if the genetic differences and ethnicities can be linked to several health conditions, it’s still impossible to determine how COVID-19 affects them.

As Dr. Morgan explains: “The evidence suggests that the new coronavirus does not discriminate but highlights existing discriminations. The continued prevalence of ideas about race today – despite the lack of any scientific basis – shows how these ideas can mutate to justify the power structures that have ordered our society since the 18th century.”

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