Off Topic SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19

I like the joke but here is a very sobering report from yesterday's Washington Post.

Why is coronavirus hitting Britain’s minority doctors so hard?


By

Karla Adam

May 20, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. GMT+1

LONDON — Adil el-Tayar was a distinguished renal transplant surgeon, originally from Sudan, who volunteered to attend to coronavirus patients in an emergency room. Within weeks, the 64-year-old was dead — the first doctor in Britain to succumb to the virus.

“He was aware there was a risk,” his son Osman said. “But he didn’t believe it would affect him the way it did.”

Nearly all the doctors who have died of covid-19 in the United Kingdom have been ethnic minorities, most born overseas, like el-Tayar, according to the British Medical Association.

That grim toll has confounded health experts, alarmed minority physicians, and startled a nation that relies on immigrants to swell the ranks of its public health-care system — yet voted for Brexit with a promise to “take back control” of its borders and limit immigration.


An estimated 44 percent of doctors in Britain are from ethnic minority backgrounds, significantly higher than the 13 percent in the population at large. Last year, more than half the new doctors who registered in Britain were born overseas.

But experts say it’s still baffling that 93 percent of the doctors who have died of covid-19 were ethnic minorities.

“I can’t get my head around that,” said Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity at University College London. “Maybe we will understand more about this terrible disease if we can explain that,” he told a parliamentary committee.

Doctors’ associations in Britain have called for a government investigation, while National Health Service leaders have advised hospitals to “risk-assess” staff and “make appropriate arrangements accordingly.” Hospitals are debating whether they should shift ethnic minority staffers away from the front lines.


If necessary, some staff should be redeployed, said Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons. He told Sky News: “It’s important they are removed from — if you like — from danger.”

According to a Guardian newspaper analysis, more than 180 health workers have died of covid-19, the majority of them ethnic minorities. Another analysis of 106 National Health Service deaths found that two-thirds were among ethnic minorities.

The disparity is even greater for doctors.

Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the British Medical Association, began calling for answers after the first 10 doctors who died of covid-19 were all from ethnic minority groups. Now, the count is 27 out of 29.

“These figures are so stark and extreme. That’s why we need an investigation,” he said.

Nagpaul said there could be a number of contributing factors, including those that affect minority groups more generally.

As in the United States, the coronavirus has hit ethnic minorities disproportionately hard here. Britain’s Office of National Statistics found that black people were more than four times as likely to die of covid-19 as white people in England and Wales, while people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin were more than three times as vulnerable as their white counterparts.


Nagpaul noted that among ethnic minorities in Britain, there is a greater prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension — health conditions thought to increase the severity of covid-19 — compared with the British white population.

Some physicians have also questioned whether vitamin D deficiency might play a role. People with dark skin tend to need longer in the sun than those with lighter skin to produce the same amounts of vitamin D.


But Nagpaul said there could be cultural and occupational factors at work, as well: Migrant doctors may be doing more of the front-line work, at the hardest-hit hospitals, in the most stressed settings.


A survey this month by the Royal College of Physicians found that 48 percent of all doctors reported being concerned or very concerned for their health, but that the number rose to 76 percent among ethnic minority doctors.


A separate British Medical Association poll last month of doctors involved in fighting covid-19 found that only 40 percent of ethnic minority doctors said they had sufficient access to personal protective equipment, compared with 70 percent of white doctors who said the same. And minority doctors were twice as likely to say they felt pressured to work in risky environments without appropriate protective equipment.


That’s in line with previous studies showing that ethnic minority doctors feel less confident than their white counterparts in raising safety concerns and report higher levels of bullying and harassment.

The result, Nagpaul said, could be that some feel they “have not been able to speak out about concerns of working in environments without full protection.”

One doctor who did publicly push for more protective equipment was Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, 53, a urologist originally from Bangladesh. Within days of contracting the virus, he wrote an appeal to the British government, asserting that health-care workers had “the human right like others to live in this world disease-free with our family and children.”

He was the “bravest person I knew,” said his son, Intisar, 18.

Chowdhury and his wife, Rehana, met at Chittagong Medical College in Bangladesh. They moved to England in 2001, got jobs with the National Heath Service and had two children: Intisar, who is finishing high school, and Wareesha, 11, whom her father called “my lovely-jubbly daughter.”


Chowdhury’s mentor and friend, Jhumur Pati, also from Bangladesh, described him as “extremely respectful, extremely dedicated.” They shared an office at Homerton University Hospital in east London. When no one else was around, they would speak in their native Bengali.

One of Chowdhury’s proudest professional achievements, Pati said, was setting up the BKN Memorial Hospital and Research Center, a facility in Bangladesh named after his wife’s father, mother and sister, who died in a car accident.

“He had a big heart and wanted to share his expertise,” she said.

Even after Chowdbury began to feel sick, he put off going into the hospital, because “he didn’t want to overburden the system,” Pati said.

She worried that her friend may have been a “very borderline diabetic” and was probably slightly overweight for his height. But she said she thinks that if more was known about the disease, his death could have been avoided.


The doctors who died of covid-19 in Britain came from Bangladesh, India, Iraq, Malawi, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Sudan — former colonial outposts and mandates. In obituaries, Facebook posts and interviews, family and friends repeat the same words to describe them: generous, hard-working, selfless, kind. They came here to practice medicine, while building new lives for their families and establishing themselves in their communities.

“Our father was the glue that kept us together,” Osman el-Tayar said. “I can’t really put it into words. It was the worst thing that could happen to us.”

Adil el-Tayar was born in Atbara, Sudan, a railway town built by the British, and studied medicine at the University of Khartoum. A British doctor he met encouraged him to move to the United Kingdom. He arrived in 1996, and although he returned to Sudan at one point to establish an organ-transplant unit there, he spent most of his adult life in Britain.


“He never forgot his roots, but he certainly identified as British,” said Osman el-Tayar, 30, speaking from the family home in west London.

Like his father and eldest sister, Osman el-Tayar is a doctor. He said the number of ethnic minorities dying was “quite frightening. The question that jumps into everyone’s mind is: Why? I don’t have an answer, but it’s probably multifactorial.”

He said his father had been diabetic and had high blood pressure.

Asked if his father had the protective equipment he needed, Osman el-Tayar said, “Given that he picked it up, he clearly didn’t.”

Adil el-Tayar had long told his family that he wanted to be buried in Sudan next to his father. Given the lockdown, that seemed impossible. But his wide network of friends and family mobilized and they were able to send his coffin on a cargo plane.

The funeral was broadcast on national television in Sudan. El-Tayar’s wife and four children watched from Britain on their devices.

“It was very humbling,” Osman el-Tayar said. “There was a very large crowd there that attended the burial. We obviously couldn’t make it because of what’s going on, but we got someone to FaceTime it for us.”

 

OK, I understand what you're saying, but to have gained this 20% return, from what I gather the FTSE was at 7000 before this in February, you'd have had to have had no position prior, watched it fall 2000 ticks, picked almost the precise low, invested all the £100,000 at this level and then sat on it until now.

What stopped you from investing at 5900, after it had already fallen 1100 ticks or stopped you from waiting for 4800, which was only a 100 ticks from where the low traded?

If you were already invested before and had bought the same amount at the low, you'd be at zero profit now, having ridden out a huge loss on your initial investment when it fell to 5000. So how did you work out that 5000 was the level to get involved in?

 

I depends on your risk profile. Unless your very experienced I would leave alone until quarter three results from the larger companies around the world has finished its reporting season and see how the markets react. Quarter one hasn’t been as bad as some feared hense the rally. Quarter two is going to show the full impact of the virus around the world on different sectors and companies and will generally be disastrous but expected. Quarter three will give a better idea of how companies have reacted and the results of their actions. Even then I would be tempted to hold off. If there is a second global wave of covid later in the year investments tank across the board. Even your traditional safe havens will suffer due to liquidity issues. As always it’s a predicting game. When markets are uncertain they fall quickly. The current recovery could be what’s called a retrace. Complex to explain but basically a false recovery. Fell from a high of 29500 to a low of 18000 (Dow index) now around 24000 so a retrace of 50%ish. Classic retrace territory. Did this in 2007/2008. A lot of people got caught out.

 

Beware the "Dead Cat Bounce"...

 

That makes sense to me, thanks. The relief rally does seem overly positive. Hold until October/November is the advice then.

 

Hold until your Happy with the risk . Our gov today announced additional borrowing of 62bn seems a huge figure which it is however it’s not as bad as it seems. Interest rates are very low and will stay low for years. Inflation increases will pay for most of it in additional revenue. Wouldn’t want to many announcements like this. America’s borrowings will be the catalyst for the markets next true move. Maybe not the next one but the one after. That’s why it’s a wait and see situation. The best traders in the world are sitting on their hands right now. Note I said the best and not all. A lot of the poor one are still trading and getting burnt. Hedge funds are doing better. There is a volatile index which we study. Generally around 15-18. Went to 82 which is the highest ever. When this happens you just stop. Now at around 34 which is still very high. We like things to be volatile as this creates opportunities however there are times when it is too much (or not enough). Think of sailing. If there is no wind your not going anywhere. That is low volatility. If the wind is too strong you sink. That is high volatility. We have just come out of a hurricane and could be in the eye right now or it could of passed. We don’t know so keep out of the boat.

 

I dont think anybody predicted that interest rates would be as low as they have been for the past decade .
Low rates might be how it will be for at least another decade minimum .

 

I'm losing profit too.There's no horse racing

 

https://fortune.com/2020/05/16/coronavirus-stock-market-dead-cat-bounce/

 

You bank balance is higher though.

 

It really isn't

 

I’ve found myself betting on some really really random stuff during this lockdown, I had a tip in Korean table tennis match recently

 

Evens: Ping-Pong

 

I'm quite happy to share. I invested a lump of my redundancy money on or around the 25th March i think it was. I missed the absolute bottoming of the markets by a couple of days. I have invested in 3 companies William Hill, Enquest (oil) and a company on the AIM called Itaconix. The latter are in the industrial chemicals sector and have some great environmentally friendly products going live this year.
All 3 I have doubled my investment already in 7/8 weeks, had I gone 2 days earlier it would be near treble. I did my research and am in these for the long term. With William Hill I am expecting to see 5 times my investment in 2 years and Enquest and ITX, forecasts are predicting at least 10 times. It wont be enough to retire on, but it could pay my mortgage off in 5 years.
As someone said earlier I think, its peaking and troughing at the minute, but still ideal to buy now.

 

I've definitely become an expert in South American football these last few months. The Nicaraguan league is one where its brought it's rewards

 

Thanks for the reply. How did you decide to invest in those three companies? Are you experienced or a professional in investing, or was this on advice/own research? If the market crashes again, will you cut your profits and sell?

I guess some financial advisors could say that you lumped on in a risky market, didn't spread the risk by buying bonds as well etc., so I'm assuming you know what you're doing.

I've got a Hargreaves Lansdown account with some investments in, but I'm not allowed to use it to buy anymore as not a UK resident, so there are regulatory problems, but I can use my online bank account which has an investment facility. What company do you use?

 

In which case take a bit of profit and reduce your exposure and bring your average down. If you can get to the point where your shares have effectively become 'free' then happy days.
AIM stocks are notoriously volatile and often a rise in share price often prompts the companies to go for a placing on the back of a rising share price which dilutes your holding.
Check the last few RNS's and last annual report to see their cash position and how along they can keep going and especially with the oil company if they have any upcoming drills and they have the money to drill them in place and that they will be ok if they drill a dry hole.
No investment advice intended.

 

I use Computershare, purely because I had my previous company share plan with them. As I did no research there may be better out there.
Of the3 company's I used to Work for William Hill so I know their potential value. They should be over £2 a share, given their growth in the USA.
The other 2 I did my research. Saw their price which was really low and gauged what it could be in a couple of years. These were cheaper risk free for me, others may have a different criteria.

 

No offence taken. I did look at the RNS and it was all positive, especially the CEO investing a lot of his own money. In addition, they'd already paid their 2020 debts up front putting them in a strong position once oil prices rise again.
Plan is to monitor and take some out in a couple of months just to ensure I dont lose it cheers.