2. Exacerbation of Inequities in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Women of Color in Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation The Race Across the Pond Initiative: Women of Color in the Healthcare System Series

2. EXACERBATION OF INEQUITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Since the beginning of the pandemic, several countries, using ethno-racial data in scientific framework, have documented the inequities relating to COVID-19. The pandemic has affected RMGs and migrants, particularly women, more severely than other groups. The available scientific literature also shows that the burden of COVID-19 among RMG workers is greater than white workers.

The 2020 Urban Institute report on American society and the British scientific article on the SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine (2020) explain that RMG workers are overrepresented in difficult jobs. These professions, often with insecure contracts, are considered frontline, which means they are essential to the functioning of the society, despite health measures, especially during complete or partial lockdown. Certain professions (eg. nurse and auxiliary nurse, hostess, cashier, maintenance, or cleaning staff), mostly occupied by women, are at higher risk of exposure. These conditions played a preponderant role in the extent of these individuals’ infection with COVID-19 and the excess morbidity and mortality among these populations.

In France, the COVID-19 health crisis reopened the debate on the need for ethnoracial data and gender parity consideration in research samples. This would make it possible to document the influence of COVID-19 on the health of the population in all with respect to its diversity while reducing structural and behavioral inequities in proposed therapeutic care.

In 2021, an article in the "Revue d'épidémiologie" a French journal of epidemiology and public health, proposed the inclusion of ethnic data in France. Despite the meager data available in France, the existing documentation reveals that mortality (all causes combined) of people born in France increased by 22% between March and April 2020.6 Over the same period, mortality among people born abroad was much higher. It increased by 54% for individuals born in North Africa, 91% for those born in Asia, and 114% for people born in sub-Saharan Africa, five times more than the general population.6

Building on these efforts, this paper highlights the disparities exacerbated by the pandemic. More than a year after the health crisis started, we believe the time has come to take stock of authorities’ management of the pandemic. The burden suffered by RMGs and particularly non-white women is undeniably questionable and blameworthy.

6 Rey G. (2021).Éditorial [Éditorial].Revue d'épidémiologie et de santé publique, 69(2), 63–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respe.2021.02.001