The son of a Muslim doctor who died from COVID-19 confronted British Health Secretary Matt Hancock on a radio show on Tuesday over his handling of the crisis.
“Over 100 NHS (National Health Service) and social care workers have passed away from contracting the virus,” said Intisar Chowdhury, 18, son of Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, who was a consultant urologist at London’s Homerton Hospital.
“The public isn’t expecting the government to handle this perfectly. We just want you to openly acknowledge there have been mistakes in handling this virus.”
The reported death toll among frontline workers in the UK rose to 134 on Tuesday. The April 8 death of Abdul Mabud, who was originally from Bangladesh, shone a light on the plight of Muslim and minority ethnic health care workers on the frontlines, reports Arab News.
As the death toll among doctors and other health care workers rose, observers quickly pointed to the outsized sacrifice that Muslim and other minority groups have made in confronting the virus. The first 10 doctors to die from it, and three of the first six nurses to do so, were all from minority ethnic backgrounds.
While Muslims make up 3 percent of the NHS workforce, they appear to make up a far higher proportion of those doctors and health care workers who have lost their lives in the fight against coronavirus.
British Medical Association (BMA) Chair Dr. Chaand Nagpaul last week described this trend as “disturbing,” and called on NHS England to investigate the disproportionate effect of the virus on people from minority ethnic backgrounds.
One of the key issues the BMA has highlighted is that people from minority ethnic backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). Abdul Mabud raised this issue before his death.
His son echoed this in his conversation with Hancock, who assured him that he took “very seriously” the concerns originally raised by Abdul Mabud, and that the government is doing “everything” it can “to get people the PPE they need.”