The recent approval of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has come as a welcome relief to all of us. The first 800,000 doses are already en route to the UK, with care home residents and frontline health workers among the first to receive the jab. In total, the UK Government has secured enough doses of the vaccine to immunise 20 million people. This news represents a light at the end of the tunnel and demonstrates that the UK Government is committed to ending this terrible crisis.
The pandemic has hit the BAME community particularly hard. A disproportionately large number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds are admitted to intensive care and sadly pass away. This is due to a variety of factors, including their economic situation, access to health care and social deprivation. Ethnic minority workers are also more likely to be in frontline and service sector jobs that expose them to the general public. Given these severe inequalities, what actions are politicians taking?
From the beginning, the UK Government has sought to thoroughly investigate and deal with this issue. In early June Public Health England published a report looking at COVID health risks across several variables including age, sex, geography, deprivation and ethnicity. This report highlighted the disparity that existed between different ethnic groups and spurred the Government to appoint a task force to address it. In October the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, announced several Government programs aimed at curbing the gap.
More than 95% of frontline NHS workers from ethnic minority backgrounds have had a risk assessment in the workplace to ensure a good understanding of the necessary precautions. Also, the Government has spent an extra £4 million on reaching ethnic minority people through tailored messaging and trusted voices within the community. They have also directed £4.3 million of additional funding towards medical research into the links between COVID and ethnicity. Further research and data collection will help support these measures, as well as the appointment of two expert Government advisors who will specialise in this area.
By contrast, Holyrood’s response has been lukewarm. The Scottish Government established an ‘expert reference group’ which published a list of recommendations in mid-August. However, the Government did not respond to these findings until November and has made nowhere near the same concrete finical commitments. Overall, it is clear that Westminster is leading the charge when it comes to tackling COVID health inequality. Meanwhile, the issue is far from a top priority for the SNP, and until it is, they will continue to have failed the Scottish BAME community.