“The NHS is composed by about 20% of non-white individuals”

This piece takes a data driven look at a controversial area, how well informed are we about the risks associated with the coronavirus behind this unprecedented global pandemic?

“The background issues of gender and ethnicity may out weigh the issues related to comorbidities” but, in terms of data, “it’s a moving target”.

There have been theories regarding vitamin D absorption, genetics and other hypotheses but in this piece we also ask if this data is driven by social factors and other issues which most prefer to ignore.

The bottom line, in terms of safety; “age trumps everything” but, for reasons we are not clear on, “being non white is an important risk factor”.

Also in this piece, “if you had an antibody test and it came back positive, would your attitude to returning to work change?”

We frequently mention this paper here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092999v1

The COVID 19 information hub mentioned is here: https://icmanaesthesiacovid-19.org/

The Health Service Journal is here: https://www.hsj.co.uk/

Our guest is also a prolific Twitter user here, https://twitter.com/doctimcook

He contributed to this excellent article here “Exclusive: deaths of NHS staff from covid-19 analysed” : https://www.hsj.co.uk/exclusive-deaths-of-nhs-staff-from-covid-19-analysed/7027471.article

Presented by Desiree Chappell with Monty Mythen and their guests, Mike Grocott Professor of Anaesthesia and critical care at the University of Southampton and Tim Cook, Consultant in Anaesthesia and ICM, Royal United Hospitals, Bath.

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EBPOM “Live from London” – the hottest tickets in anaesthesia and perioperative medicine – go now to the website: https://www.ebpom.org/EBPOM2020