Covid-19 and ethnicity in medicine; medical devices safety review
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the most striking features of the coronavirus pandemic is the disproportionate toll it’s taken on some groups in society. Research by the Office for National Statistics shows black people are nearly twice as likely to have died from coronavirus than white people. And you see a similar pattern of elevated risk in other ethnicities too. Why is this? And to what extent is Covid 19 shedding light on approaches being taken in medicine more generally when assessing and treating people from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic groups?
We hear from GP Dr Navjoyt Ladher who’s been navigating the language of race for the British Medical Journal; Dr Rohin Francis, cardiologist and host of the Medlife Crisis podcast, and Prof Kamlish Khunti who’s establishing a detailed Covid risk score to establish exactly who’s at most risk of infection.
A major review has found women’s lives have been ruined and babies have been harmed in the womb and yet concerns were dismissed for years as simply “women’s problems”. Those are the findings of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review. It looked at the hormonal pregnancy test Primodos, the epilepsy drug sodium valproate and vaginal mesh implants which are used to treat prolapse and incontinence. Inside Health’s resident GP Margaret McCartney. discusses what needs to change.
Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Transcript
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| 0:34.4 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:37.9 | You're listening to Inside Health, which was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on July 14th, 2020. |
| 0:44.1 | I'm James Galaher, the BBC's Health and Science correspondent. |
| 0:48.0 | A major review has found that women have been left in lifelong pain and babies damaged in the womb. |
| 0:53.5 | However, a culture of arrogance dismiss |
| 0:55.8 | concerns as just women's problems. We'll be discussing what needs to change with our resident GP |
| 1:01.6 | Margaret McCartney. But first, one of the most striking features of the coronavirus pandemic |
| 1:07.5 | is the disproportionate toll is taken on some groups in society. |
| 1:12.5 | Research by the Office for National Statistics shows black people are nearly twice as likely |
| 1:17.7 | to have died from coronavirus as white people. And you see a similar pattern of elevated risk |
| 1:23.5 | in other ethnicities too. We're going to spend time this week exploring why. But first, |
| 1:29.5 | it's worth reflecting on the language we use. Words after all do matter. Some people prefer |
| 1:36.2 | to use the term BAME or BAME, short for black, Asian and minority ethnic, while others |
| 1:42.7 | go for people of colour, or non-white, or just |
| 1:46.0 | ethnic minorities. The British Medical Journal has been trying to navigate the language of race. |
| 1:52.0 | I've been discussing their thinking with Dr Navdraud Lada, a GP and the head of education at the journal. |
... |
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