Covid-19: Racism may be linked to ethnic minorities’ raised death risk, says PHE

Racism, discrimination, and social inequality may have contributed to the increased risk of death from covid-19 among ethnic minority groups, a review commissioned by the government has acknowledged. The report from Public Health England,1 published on 16 June, follows a separate PHE report on 2 June that found that people from ethnic minorities were more likely to contract and die from covid-19 but that received heavy criticism for its lack of recommendations on how to reduce the disparities.2 The second report makes some recommendations (box 1), some of which were disclosed to The BMJ last week by disgruntled stakeholders who had expected them to be published with the first report.3 Box 1 ### PHE’s key recommendationsRETURN TO TEXT