What causes the differences?
The researchers have stated that it’s still impossible for them to fully understand how ethnicity affects people’s COVID-19 outcomes. There are many factors that could cause those differences, such as socioeconomic background, genetic and behavioral differences, racism, and others.
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According to Prof. Ajay Shah, senior author and British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at King’s College London, “The finding that Black versus Asian patients are affected in quite different ways, and that significant risk persists even after adjustment for deprivation and long-term health conditions, is striking.”
He continued saying that there could be other factors that contribute to the differences, possibly biological, implying that there might be needed various treatments for different ethnic groups.
Black people would need treatment to help them control how the virus progresses, as they’re more likely to have a severe disease form, while Asian patients would need to treat the complications that could take their life.
As Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan, the Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation who funded the study explains, the study demonstrated that COVID-19 affects in a different manner people from specific ethnic groups, especially minorities.
She also added that more research is needed in order to demonstrate how other external factors such as occupation, access to healthcare, and other differences could impact one’s journey with COVID-19.
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