The impact of our rapid review into COVID-19 and race

In April 2020, we worked with Bristol City Council (BCC) on a rapid evidence review of ethnic disparities in COVID-19, to support planning for the pandemic. Bristol's Deputy Mayor Asher Craig describes the impact of that review, and how it paved the way for the launch of the Bristol Race Equality COVID-19 Steering Group, which brought together all the key players in the city to tackle this urgent issue.
We think that this was the first such review in the UK on the urgent question of why COVID was disproportionately affecting Black, Asian and minority ethnic people. This collaboration aimed to answer a difficult question that at that time was not being researched, despite the first ten doctors who died of COVID in the UK all being from Black, Asian or other minority ethnic backgrounds.
The verdict of that first review has been confirmed by subsequent research. It was published on our website the same day that the UK Government launched a public enquiry on race disparities in COVID. The review was also quoted in parliament by East Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy.
The Bristol Race Equality COVID-19 Steering Group used the recommendations highlighted from that review to address these disparities over the course of the following year.
Since then, several such reviews have been published across the world.