Really pleased to see our latest @OpenSafely paper on ethnic differences in #COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation, and mortality in 17 million people during the first two waves of the #coronavirus pandemic in England published in @TheLancet today.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00634-6/fulltext
1/

We found that minority ethnic groups had higher risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and of COVID-19-related hospitalisations, ICU)admissions and death compared with white groups, even after accounting for household size, socio-demographic characteristics and health status. 2/

Disparities lessened for most minority ethnic groups between pandemic wave 1 and wave 2 but increased for South Asian groups. One potential reason might be occupational exposure (working in front-line or insecure jobs with fewer opportunities to work from home or furlough). 3/

2nd, while living in multigenerational households offers valuable informal care and support, it may increase the risk of exposure and transmission (from children or working adults to older family members) – particularly with new variants in wave 2 which were more transmissible 4/

Limitations- we were unable to account for occupation, health-related behaviours, and experiences of racism or structural discrimination. Ethnicity was missing for 26% of the study sample. 5/

Co-designing culturally competent and non-stigmatising strategies to engage with diverse communities is key. We have already seen great success with this in relation to vaccine confidence. The next steps include looking at 3rd wave and long-covid/post-covid disparities 6/

Thanks to all my colleagues including
@DarthCTR @dr_c_morton @AnnaTheresia @Roxytonin @rozeggo @StatsFizz @wjchulme @krishnan_lshtm
@kamleshkhunti @bengoldacre @LiamSmeeth1
and the entire @OpenSafely @LSHTM @ehr_lshtm
team! 7/7