The Swiss Basler Zeitung revealed that 70% of patients hospitalised for Covid in Switzerland are non-citizens (with migration background ). That means migrants in Switzerland are 7.3 times more likely to be hospitalised or die from covid than citizens. Similar uneven distributions between groups are confirmed by data in the US and UK: Whites and East Asians with low Covid prevalence on the one hand and Blacks, Latinos and Indigenous Americans with high prevalence on the other. The same has been corroborated by health care workers across Europe. 

The Swiss political left alleges it must be due to racism and right-wing politicians tried to blame migrants for causing this discrepancy by not complying with the Covid rules when traveling to their home countries for vacation. Both sides are probably wrong. But the uneven distribution is undeniable.

The Lucern Zeitung reported in November 2020:

“Geneva is one of the largest Corona hotspots in Switzerland. In the search for reasons for this, the cultural diversity of the population with a high proportion of migrants has been named. this is also because the OECD has established that there is a systematic overrepresentation of migrants in Covid 19 cases and in mortality for its member countries. For example, according to the OECD, in Canada, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Sweden the risk of infection for migrants was twice as high as that of the native-born population. During the first wave, for example, the strong family ties customary in Italy were also made responsible for the high rate of spread of Covid in that country.”

In the US, Pacific Islanders, Latinos and Blacks have rates of Covid deaths of up to 2.5 times as high as Asians or Whites. Note the wording below by APM Research-lab focussed on Whites, disregarding that Asians (East Asians) have even lower rates of death. 

The Apmresearchlab titled: THE COLOR OF CORONAVIRUS: COVID-19 DEATHS BY RACE AND ETHNICITY IN THE U.S. Dec. 10, 2020

In Britain: Children of black ethnicity are 2.8 to 10 times more likely to be admitted to critical care because of Covid 19:

A study published by BMJ in Aug 2020 was conducted in 260 hospitals in England, Wales, and Scotland between 17 January and 3 July 2020, with a minimum follow-up time of two weeks (to 17 July 2020). Participants were 651 children and young people aged less than 19 years admitted to 138 hospitals. 

“Black ethnicity was significantly associated with admission to critical care on multivariable analysis (odds ratio 2.82).”

“Children of black ethnicity were over-represented, comprising 10% of our paediatric cohort compared with a population representation of 4.7% of all children under 18 years across England and Wales and 1% in Scotland. Black ethnicity was also associated with increased odds of admission to critical care on multivariable analysis, consistent with reports for adult populations suggesting that South Asian and black ethnicities are disproportionately severely affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

In one Swiss hospital, 83 percent of Covid patients were non-citizens. “After reviewing the data in an intensive care unit in a hospital in north-western Switzerland, a peak value of 83 percent of patients with a migration background was determined in the past few days. This number is likely to be an exception and well above the mean observed value of around 70 percent of the last few weeks. “No figures are collected, but we talk about them in the hospital corridors,” says Wettstein, who is in contact with colleagues in the neighboring canton. Corona patients in the intensive care unit are sick with classic susceptibilities: obesity, diabetes, blood pressure problems, almost all of them over 65 years of age.”

The average of 70% would mean non-citizens would be 3 times more likely to be hospitalised. But when age is factored in, it turns out that non-citizens in Switzerland are in fact 7.3 times more likely for hospitalisation or death from Covid-19.  There are no data to suggest that the age ranges of hospitalisation are different for citizens and non-citizens. Neither are there differences in the ratio of infection rates and death rates.

population of Switzerland is 75% Swiss citizens, and 25% non-citizens.

The number of Swiss citizens over 80-years-old: 1,100,000

The number of non- citizens over 80-years-old:      130,000

The media age of Covid deaths in Switzerland is  82.5 years.

82 is also the life expectancy at birth (meaning the average age of death). 

Possible causes:

Income disparities and healthcare access. Most European countries have largely socialised healthcare systems, in which income can only contribute marginally to disparities of medical treatment. Testing and treatment was made free of cost for migrants without health insurance in several European countries.

Further, genetic differences in ethnicities have been proposed. STUDIES SUGGEST LINK BETWEEN VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY AND COVID-19 INFECTIONS; 80 % of hospitalised Covid patients have Vitamin D deficiency.

From my book Solar Behavior, Chapter 16,   Vitamin D levels by latitude and ethnicity;

“Only a few decades ago, the consensus in the medical field was that people of African descent living in higher latitudes should have their vitamin D status checked, they were recommended to insure sufficient sun exposure, if need be, they were often prescribed artificial sunlight exposure or vitamin D supplements. ^[I] Shelley R. Kreiter, MD et al studied thirty patients with nutritional rickets, first consulted between 1990 and June of 1999. All patients were African American children who were breast fed without receiving supplemental vitamin D. The authors recommend that all dark-skinned breast-fed infants and children receive vitamin D supplementation. “^[ii]

Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with high rates of Schizophrenia in these groups (dark-skinned people living at higher latitudes). 2 decades ago, this topic was openly discussed with the aim to alleviate the negative health outcomes in the affected groups.

Today, this topic is largely taboo and rarely openly discussed with the reasoning of preventing racism and the affected groups (mostly minorities) are left to suffer the adverse health effects. ^[iii]

The most unsettling hypothetical reason of why migrants and ethic minorities are more effected by Covid than whites and East Asians would be that minorities are targeted with excessive screening, excessive treatment and medication.

^[i] Harris S. 2006:  Vitamin D and African Americans; The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 136, Issue 4, April 2006, Pages 1126–1129.

^[ii] Kreiter, Shelley MD et al 2000: Nutritional rickets in African American breast-fed infants; The Journal of Pediatrics; Volume 137, Issue 2, August 2000, Pages 153-157; 

^[iii] Northwestern University.  One Size Doesn’t Fit All When It Comes To Vitamin D For Men, African-American men especially need high doses of supplements; September 20, 2011 | by Marla Paul