Using an Ecological and Biological Framing for an Anti-racist Covid-19 Approach

Abstract

In the United States and the United Kingdom COVID-19 has disproportionately affected Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people respectively. Multiple studies identify environmental factors such as overcrowded housing and poor workplace conditions as contributing factors for the disproportionate COVID-19 rates amongst BAME and BIPOC communities. This paper will show that to fully understand the phenomenon, both an ecological and biological approach is needed. An ecological approach highlights how a person’s habitat and the experiences within it mediate their susceptibility to disease. Moreover, to understand how this mediation works, this paper will use allostatic load as a biological pathway to link a person to their habitat and the poor health outcomes that contributed to COVID-19 susceptibility. In introducing this new approach, the paper will serve as an anti-racist framework for understanding how COVID-19 affected BAME and BIPOC communities. It is anti-racist by centring poor health outcomes on the habitats people are forced to live in due to structural racism rather than the physiology of a person’s race or ethnicity. This is important in order to avoid similar crises in the future and to improve the health of marginalised communities.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young people from black and mixed-ethnic groups’ mental health: A qualitative study

“…A biological explanation would suggest that ethnic minority groups have a higher risk of developing stress-related physiological responses and comorbidities [7,8]. An ecological explanation of the dynamic interplay between an individual and their environment [9,10] alternatively suggests that situational risk factors such as multigenerational living conditions and environmental adversity -most notably associated with individuals from minority ethnic groups' living conditions -may increase ethnic minority groups' vulnerability to Covid-19 [11]. Ethnic minority groups are overrepresented in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with white individuals only representing 8,7% of the population in the 10% most income-deprived neighbourhoods in the UK in 2016 [12].…”

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people from black and mixed ethnic groups’ mental health in West London: a qualitative study

“…An ecological explanation can be offered to elucidate these patterns. Indeed, a holistic consideration of the dynamic interplay between an individual and their environment7 8 suggests that situational risk factors such as multigenerational living conditions and environmental adversity—most notably associated with individuals from minority ethnic groups’ living circumstances—may increase ethnic minority groups’ vulnerability to COVID-19 9. Additionally, they are over-represented in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with white individuals only representing 8.7% of the population in the 10% of the most income-deprived neighbourhoods in the UK in 2016 10.…”