Is it unreasonable for a bunch of white people to debate rationale for higher proportion of BAME people dying from Covid-19?

[TGear]

I am part of a professional group on Facebook. A member has asked why people from BAME communities have a higher number of covid-19 related deaths. It's now just a bunch of white people trying to work this out. Is this totally inappropriate? I want to be sensitive to other people and acknowledge that it's not something I can relate to on a personal level, but equally I feel everyone should be asking the answer to this to support those that are disproportionately affected.

I wasn't aware that Facebook had any professional groups. How inappropriate.

Facebook has lots of professional groups

Like most, I don't think it's inappropriate.
However, it rather depends on what reasoning they're coming up with - if it's based on biology (and yes, there are sufficient health conditions that discriminate based on biology that this is factual) then that's fine.
If it's socio-economic situations that pertain more to BAME people, then that's also relevant.

But if it starts moving into cultural practices that could be contributing, and that seem to be racially-motivated, then that's starting to cross the line and become inappropriate.

If people of one ethnic group are harder hit by COVID-19, of course it's bloody well reasonable to ask why. We need to understand how different people are affected differently so we can figure out a way of developing a vaccine. Is it genetics? Is it simply to do with a higher proportion of BAME people in specific COVID-19 hot spots and therefore totally irrelevant? The more information we can get, the better our odds at dealing with this virus.

And by 'we', I mean any researcher/scientist who is qualified to interpret that data. I don't include myself in that 'we'. It would be a whole new level of insane racism to say white people who have built a career out of researching viruses and leading clinical trials aren't allowed to help stop BAME people from dying just because they have a different colour of skin.

How do you know it’s just ‘a bunch of white people’ trying to work it out? And by white people, do you mean the government or the research scientists?

Either way I imagine you are probably very wrong. I see ethnic minority people fairly accurately proportionally represented in government and hugely over represented in the field of medicine so I see no reason to believe that they wouldn’t be properly represented in the relevant fields of research either.

OP hasn't specified which profession , and that might make a difference to whether she had come across researchers chat or tour of stereotypes.

It is an area which needs to be looked at properly.

But as much of London is 1/3 (or higher) BAME, and as London is such a high proportion of the UK stats at present, then an early thing to look at might be to establish if, at this stage of outbreak, it really is as anomalous as it appears at first sight.

@TGear
It's now just a bunch of white people trying to work this out.

equally I feel everyone should be asking the answer to this to support those that are disproportionately affected.

I genuinely don't understand what you are saying? Are you saying that because one white person in your group asked why the BAME community are more likely to get Covid-19 than Caucasian that equates to no-one but "white" people being interested in why? So no-one in India, Nigeria or Jamaica is wondering and asking the same question. And equally that no BAME scientists are working on a solution?

Based on what? I'm really not trying to be goady, I just don't understand your question?

I could honestly cry. Death and despair all over the world,people trying to pull together to get through it and yet this hideous subject raises its ugly head once more. Gutted

Men are hit harder than women, older people are more affected than young. There are now warnings that dope smokers are more likely to have problems.

Lets limit discussion/research to elderly male stoners....

Or turn OPs question round a bit Is it wrong for white people to be concerned about the prevalence of severe Covid symptoms amongst BAME individuals? Presumably not. First because it is human to feel empathy and concern. Second population studies are a well known medical research tool. Some parts of India record very low rates of dementia. People in those places consume a lot of turmeric. Is there a link? If so what is the mechanism? Ditto places in South America have high rates. Perhaps genetic.

Oddly the complaint is often the other way round. A (white) researcher into narcolepsy once told me before 'stick in your own lane' orthdoxies became prevalent, that it was difficult to get research funding as it was a condition that affected black people more than white. Diseases that affect rich people are more attractive to drug companies.

OP should relax. The more lines of enquiry the sooner we will find effective treatments, vaccines or whatever. Limiting enquiry to those who have the 'right' skin colour would be daft.

The 'great and the good', a quote not my opinion, in the UK are mostly white, middle aged males. So that is who will be listened to or will have the ear of the newspapers, media on any subject. I'm sure many are discussing this but we only hear from the above.

I don’t care if it’s your dog that comes comes up the cure for this killer virus tbh.....what has skin colour got to do with it?? I’m genuinely perplexed....

Considering that the health inequalities which BME groups face in UK and elsewhere in Europe are strongly influenced by societal racism, it is appropriate (and necessary) to have reflexive discussion about these among white people too.

@04Erithacusrubecula
And then there's us whites that have fought for equality and fairness for over 30 years. Sorry for being white. 🤦🏾‍♂️😮😠😠

That is a silly thing to say, it's about as rational as saying only people who have certain diseases are qualified to find a cure or figure out why certain races/sexes are predisposed to it. If they have the knowledge to share, discuss and debate then leave them be.

Who are you to police what topics people can discuss according to skin colour?

It’s a little racist Op. Are you generally sensitive regarding white people?

Nothing derogatory Is being said. They are simply discussing why it’s being reported

If they potentially have the answers then no it isn’t. Even if they don’t have the answers themselves raising awareness is good. Ignoring it would be far worse.

From experience Op, a lot of black/Asian people get their backs up against white people for fear of racism. We’re not all monsters

OP thank you for asking the question. I’m sorry about the pile on, defensiveness and abuse you’ve been getting.

OP, I find the question frustratingly stupid I must say.

Think through the implications.

So no one is allowed to research anything beyond their immediate experience? Why would you limit advancement and knowledge in this way?

I could honestly cry. Death and despair all over the world,people trying to pull together to get through it and yet this hideous subject raises its ugly head once more. Gutted

@Dita73 What? I have no idea what point you are trying to make here, although I assume the hideous subject in question is racism. Could you explain please?

This has been extensively discussed on here , posted by an asian OP

Is that Ok then, but not for others to discuss?

(mind you that poster was called racist which they thought was hilarious) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3875924-All-the-doctors-dying-are-Asian-what-s-going-on

So, to be clear, only BAME communities should ever look for scientific reasons why they are more or less affected by a scientific phenomenon? Ditto only women of childbearing age should ever look for the scientific reasons for repeated miscarriage, say? All research into age-related degenerative conditions should be conducted by people over the age of 60? We should have all these scientific sub-groups all over the country dealing only with issues that affect their demographic lest they could be perceived as racist, sexist, ageist etc?

Obviously the OP is being unreasonable.

But surely the key question is whether more BAME people are contracting covid (could be to do with more key workers, multi generational families etc) or more BAME people who have contracted it are dying from it (reluctance to seek treatment, health issues etc)
And obviously when I say more I mean proportionally more rather than literally more.

While I agree that both BAME and whitle people can and should discuss the subject I do not think that the OP question is completely unreasonable. Nor do I understand the outrage in the replies.

This is a group of professionals informally discussing a subject I suppose, but I would not want to see this or similar subjects discussed higher up ONLY by white people, in the same way that I do not want ONLY men making laws that involve mainly female issues.

How do you know it’s just ‘a bunch of white people’ trying to work it out?

Presumably because their profile pictures are of a white person.

And by white people, do you mean the government or the research scientists?

She means the people in the Facebook group.