I wanted to share this article about an independent research effort led by my IGDORE colleague Michelle King-Okoye, who is aiming to improve healthcare outcomes for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) population COVID patients in developed countries. While I wouldn't say that the project ranks highly against other EA-aligned healthcare work, the qualitative assessment of BAME COVID patient treatment outcomes does seem at least seem neglected when compared to the rest of the COVID response in developed countries.
I'm also quite impressed this has gotten so far as a grass-roots research effort and I think it's a good (but rare) example in-progress of independent academic research being done well.
[dislacimer, I'm a Global Board member at IGDORE and edited the article, although I am not involved in the research project]
Michelle's study is now searching for participants. If you are a Black, Asian from a minority ethnic group or a person of colour and interested in sharing your lived experience of COVID-19, contact her at: michelle.king-okoye@igdore.org
See more details here.
A new update on this project - it has now grown into the Ethnicity and COVID-19 Research Consortium (ECRC). They have started to publish some work, which is available here, and Michelle and her colleagues are still looking for BAME people who have been affected to participate in their study here.
The consortia will also be presenting some initial results of their work in an online mini-conference on November 27th (7PM GMT). Please register here to attend.
It seems like this issue is now receiving more attention as well, as the Biden-Harris COVID-19 response plan includes a ‘COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force’. I expect the ECRC's work could be used to give that Task Force a head start, and if anybody knows somebody who will be on the Task Force, I would be happy to connect them to Michelle and the ECRC team.