Are Black people really four times more likely to die from Covid-19?

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Published on May 18, 2020

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Recent research from the UK Office of National Statistics found that Black people were four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than Whites.

After the findings were adjusted for socio-demographic factors like deprivation and living conditions, the research still found that Black people were almost twice as likely to die from Covid-19, with death rates of people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnicity more than 1.5 times higher than Whites.

This research concerned me. I'm not worried about catching the disease myself, as I'm fit and healthy, so I think my risk of dying from it is very low, and there are many risks in life.

But I was concerned about my relatives in the Bahamas. I have many elderly relatives in the Bahamas, and some of them have underlying health conditions like diabetes and obesity.

I phoned a cousin to find out how they were. "We're all fine!" she said, thankfully. After the phonecall, I looked online for the number of Covid-19 deaths in the Bahamas, and found that it was 11. I hope it doesn't go any higher.

The population of the Bahamas is 385,000, so 11 deaths gives a fatality rate of 0.00286% of the population.

I decided to compare this with an island community of similar population size. Iceland's population is 365,000, and they have had 10 deaths from Covid-19, giving a fatality rate of 0.00274% – very similar to the fatality rate in the Bahamas.

The population of the Bahamas is 85% Black African. The population of Iceland is at least 95% White. So it seems that ethnicity is not a factor here.

What's going on?

I then looked at the fatality rate from Covid-19 in the UK, which has a population of 67,886,000, and has had 33,998 deaths from Covid-19 so far. That gives a fatality rate of 0.05%, which is more than 17 TIMES the fatality rate of the Bahamas and Iceland.

My guess is that vitamin D is an important factor here. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin, but a hormone, which is made from the action of sunlight on the skin. And it is believed to play an important role in protecting from a range of diseases, from the common cold to cancer.

The sun has to be fairly strong to allow vitamin D to be created.

Dark skin is protective of UV rays from the sun, which means that in cooler climates, dark-skinned people like myself don't get enough vitamin D. This has been known by the medical community for decades, and because of this, I take vitamin D supplements (and I get outside as much as I can, to soak up the few sun's rays that we get here in Scotland!).

I take high-dose vitamin D – 5000 IU daily – and that seems to be just enough for my needs. When I had a blood test a couple of years ago, my vitamin D level was "normal", not "high normal", even though I'd been taking 5000 IU of vitamin D every day for years.

Even if you have white skin you may benefit from taking vitamin D supplements if you live in a cold climate, especially if you work indoors and if you're the type of person that tans easily in warm climates. Blood tests to check your vitamin D levels are quite inexpensive.

If vitamin D is a factor in Covid-19, it would explain why Chinese people were found to have the same fatality rate from the disease as White people, as Chinese people have light skin.

But in hot climates, people with dark skin get the full benefits of the sun's rays, and therefore get vitamin D naturally.

It's interesting that an interview with Dr David Brownstein on The High Wire with Del Bigtree was banned from YouTube recently. In the interview, Brownstein described how he was treating people who had bad cases of Covid-19 with intravenous vitamin C and vitamin D.

David Brownstein also advocates the "High Dose Iodine Protocol" which helped me cure my underactive thyroid a few years ago, and which is considered controversial by the medical establishment. You can't make big profits from natural treatments like vitamin C, iodine and sunlight.

SHOW NOTES

Black people are four times more likely to die/Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/07/black-people-four-times-more-likely-to-die-from-covid-19-ons-finds

Black people are four times more likely to die/Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/07/black-people-four-times-likely-die-coronavirus-white-people/

Black people are four times more likely to die/Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/05/07/black-people-are-four-times-more-likely-to-die-from-coronavirus-uk-statistics-show/#2a6967e324fd

https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/coronavirusrelateddeathsbyethnicgroupenglandandwales2march2020to10april2020

The Tribune: One in seven suffering from diabetes
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2019/oct/25/one-seven-suffering-diabetes-bahamas/

The Bahamas leads the world in diabetes prevalence
https://www.familymedicinecenter.org/2015/10/bahamas-leads-the-world-in-diabetes-prevalence/

The coronavirus pandemic in the Bahamas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_Bahamas

Number of deaths in UK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274

Dr Brownstein interview on The Highwire, banned on YouTube
https://3speak.online/watch?v=krnel/gpatgaey#

Image credits

Thumbnail photo:
https://pixabay.com/photos/girl-black-afroamerican-model-1868930/