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Hello and welcome to More or Less. We're the show that's curious about calculations

and makes friends with functions, and I'm Tim Halford. In our endless mission to use

numbers to make sense of the world, pandemic or no pandemic, we'll ask what impact a near

global lockdown might be having on climate change. We'll try to understand why certain

ethnic groups seem to be suffering worse than others. Crime is down, boasts the home

secretary pretty patell, should we be impressed. And after several weeks of staring out

the window at gorgeous weather, are we inevitably doomed to have a rainy summer if the lockdown

ends? But first, we've been getting a huge number of emails from loyal listeners recently,

and one request comes in frequently. Can we investigate whether ethnic minorities in

the UK are over-represented among those falling seriously ill or dying from Covid-19?

It's a trend that many saw in newspaper reports about deaths among NHS staff. This email

from Gabrielle Lansley was typical.

One of the saddest group of photos I've seen is of the NHS doctors who's died. There

were eight or ten doctors pictured, mostly of Middle East and Black or Asian origin. Our

own local GP Dr San has been in hospital with Covid-19. But thank goodness he's back home

and recovering now. I think it would be useful to look at ethnicities that those who've

died and or had Covid and recovered. It might give more information about the virus.

To help us look at this topic, I'm joined by Kavita Puri, presenter of the World Service

Radio Program, The Inquiry. Hello, Kavita.

Hi Tim.

Now, I understand you're in the middle of making a show about this very issue.

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