Dr Jonathan Fluxman on why the Sewell report is not fit for purpose and Woody Caan on a short-lived health initiative that tried to address problems caused by social exclusion
In addition to bypassing Michael Marmot’s reports on structural racism in health inequalities (The Sewell report cited my work – just not the parts highlighting structural racism, 7 April), the Sewell report also ignored one by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies last September on the reasons for the disproportionate deaths among black and Asian people. This paper found: “All of these mechanisms [leading to racial disparities] arise from the wider social context that drive ethnic and other social inequalities, such as power relations and structural racism.”
The report is on the government’s website with the words: “the paper was the best assessment of the evidence at the time of writing”. The Sewell report is patently unable to withstand scrutiny, so why has the government not repudiated it?
Dr Jonathan Fluxman
GP, London
