“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

— Arundhati Roy

As I write, there are two obvious stories appearing in the daily newspapers and over social media, although if you are reading this from elsewhere in the world, this may not be the same for you.  In the UK, the current twin focuses of attention are the ongoing SARS CoV-2 pandemic and the protests in the USA following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the police. 

Although these stories seem to be separate, there is a key link. 

In the UK, the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) at the University of Oxford has shown that the number of deaths per 10 000 people is over twice as high for black people than white Europeans, with other ethnicities having different levels of risk.  At present it is not known whether there is a physiological or socio-economic reason for this, or a mix of both. Continue reading →