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[MEGATHREAD: BAME PGRs]
Today, we’re working with the wonderful @pocsquared on our day of activism and awareness focusing on BAME PGRs. Our final day will follow the normal structure - highlighting key issues, resources & accounts before ending with a call to action!
![[MEGATHREAD: BAME PGRs]Today, we’re working with the wonderful @pocsquared on our day of activism and awareness focusing on BAME PGRs. Our final day will follow the normal structure - highlighting key issues, resources & accounts before ending with a call to action!](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYnVA7fWsAAPNOM.jpg "[MEGATHREAD: BAME PGRs]Today, we’re working with the wonderful @pocsquared on our day of activism and awareness focusing on BAME PGRs. Our final day will follow the normal structure - highlighting key issues, resources & accounts before ending with a call to action!")
Today, we’re working with the wonderful @pocsquared on our day of activism and awareness focusing on BAME PGRs. Our final day will follow the normal structure - highlighting key issues, resources & accounts before ending with a call to action!
@pocsquared are a social enterprise that aims to introduce systematic change in universities so BAME students can progress into paying roles in STEM, as well as decolonising the STEM curriculum and highlighting the work of scientists of colour!
They are made up of three people: Karel Green ( @thisismeonline), an Astrophysics PhD student at the University of Nottingham, Pruthvi Mehta ( @q_the_ordinary) a Particle Physics PhD student at the University of Liverpool and Sehher Tariq ( @sehherT) a R&D consultant. Over to them!
[from @pocsquared]
Before we begin the thread we’d like to state that a lot more about our work and the content of the following thread can be found on our website ( https://poc2.co.uk/ ), and our podcast ( https://poc2.co.uk/podcast/ )
Before we begin the thread we’d like to state that a lot more about our work and the content of the following thread can be found on our website ( https://poc2.co.uk/ ), and our podcast ( https://poc2.co.uk/podcast/ )
So there’s a lot in the media (that you may have seen) about how BAME communities are more affected by COVID and how COVID patients seem to be disproportionately POC. This has become more & more apparent: in the UK an inquiry has been launched. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/inquiry-disproportionate-impact-coronavirus-bame
Research shows 35% of 2000 Covid-19 patients in ICU were BAME, compared to the 14% of the population in the UK which are non-white: @IFSD_IFPD shows the death rate of British Black Africans & British Pakistanis in hospitals in England is 2.5 times that of the white population.
As for frontline NHS staff who have been infected, the majority who have died have been BAME. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/inquiry-disproportionate-impact-coronavirus-bame There are many possible reasons behind this:
However, it is easy to blame factors like health and genetics as the main factors behind the large numbers of BAME deaths due to COVID- this takes the spotlight off socioeconomic factors - these are huge factors and should not be ignored! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/07/the-guardian-view-on-bame-death-rates-inequality-and-injustice
Poverty plays a huge role-Black, Bangledeshi & Pakistani groups face higher levels of unemployment and child poverty, & are more likely to live in more crowded conditions. This impacts stress levels, food choices etc, leading to COVID19 risk factors.http://www.irr.org.uk/research/statistics/poverty/
BAME doctors also feel less able to complain about not having adequate PPE, & BAME doctors and nurses are bullied at much higher levels compared to their white counterparts, and are twice as likely not to raise concerns due to fear of pushback https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/10/uk-coronavirus-deaths-bame-doctors-bma
An astonishing three-quarters of BAME medical staff are worried about contracting the virus. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/18/over-three-quarters-of-bame-doctors-fear-they-will-contract-covid-19
Even in trying to research and create a vaccine, overt racism rears its ugly head: There is a nasty legacy of medical testing occurring on black bodies, and it is absolutely disgusting that Africa would be a target of trialling the coronavirus vaccine. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52151722
School age students are being affected by the governments use of modelling predicted grades - schools which are in more challenging socio-economic backgrounds give lower predicted grades to their students - many of whom are BAME.https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-hitting-bame-communities-hard-on-every-front-136327 -
For BAME postgraduate students, there may be a disparity in their wealth vs their white counterparts, leading to them being more affected by COVID, especially in the case of lack of funding. Many BAME PGRs live paycheck to paycheck: unfunded extensions simply aren't feasible.
Young carers are also 1.5x more likely to be from BAME backgrounds - some BAME PGRs may also be carers, and the relatives they are caring for may be more susceptible to COVID. This stress puts a lot of pressure on BAME PGRs, especially when quarantining far away.
It is of vital importance that BAME PGR students are supported in this time - many may be reticent to talk about the effects of COVID on themselves and their families. The impact of race and of institutional racism must not be overlooked.
If we are to make academia a better, more welcoming place for BAME individuals, we need to make sure that we understand how the barriers BAME people face in academia are exacerbated by the COVID crisis.
All of the issues mentioned in this thread and more can be found in Episode 6 of the @pocsquared podcast ( https://poc2.co.uk/podcast/ ), where we talk about the historical and current intersection of BAME people and health.
We have a discussion on the effect of COVID on BAME people worldwide, feel free to listen to the audio snippet below: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qEhgy6GczL9QttD79r8nv_NaX0FJoMlu
Our podcast ep comes with a transcript for those who are hard of hearing and show notes, where you can find sources for a lot of the information in this thread!https://poc2.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/poc2-episode-6-shownotes_3-1.pdf
We hope this thread has been informative! A big thank you to @PandemicPGRs for allowing us to collab with them and for their incredible awareness campaign! :) Follow @pocsquared![End of content from @pocsquared, back to @PandemicPGRs being behind the tweets!]
