Inside Health

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Series that demystifies health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.

Series that demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and bringing clarity to conflicting health advice.

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Inside Health: Covid-19 and ethnicity in medicine; medical devices safety review

Covid-19 and ethnicity in medicine; medical devices safety review

BBC Radio 4 - Inside Health, Covid-19 and ethnicity in medicine; medical devices safety review

Covid-19 and ethnicity in medicine and medical devices safety review.

Why is there an elevated risk from Covid-19 amongst Black, Asian and Minority ethnic groups? How the enhanced risk is shedding new light on race ethnicity and health.

One of the most striking features of the coronavirus pandemic is the disproportionate toll it’s taken on some groups in society. Research by the Office for National Statistics shows black people are nearly twice as likely to have died from coronavirus than white people. And you see a similar pattern of elevated risk in other ethnicities too. Why is this?  And to what extent is Covid 19 shedding  light on approaches being taken in medicine more generally when assessing and treating people from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic groups?

We hear from GP Dr Navjoyt Ladher who’s been navigating the language of race for the British Medical Journal; Dr Rohin Francis, cardiologist and host of the Medlife Crisis podcast, and Prof Kamlish Khunti who’s establishing a detailed Covid risk score to establish  exactly who’s  at most risk of infection.   

A major review has found women’s lives have been ruined and babies have been harmed in the womb and yet concerns were dismissed for years as simply “women’s problems”. Those are the findings of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review. It looked at the hormonal pregnancy test Primodos, the epilepsy drug sodium valproate and vaginal mesh implants which are used to treat prolapse and incontinence. Inside Health’s resident GP  Margaret McCartney. discusses what needs to change.

Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Adrian Washbourne

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