Hospital staff take the knee in Boston

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David L Ryan/Boston Globe/Getty Images

Members of staff kneel during a vigil on the lawn of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, on 5 June as part of global Black Lives Matter protests against racial injustice and in memory of George Floyd, killed by the police in Minneapolis on 25 May.

Protests also took part in the UK, and a protester outside Downing Street demanded effective protection against covid-19 and highlighted the disproportionately higher mortality rate from the virus among ethnic minority groups.

In a statement issued in response to the Black Lives Matter protests, the BMA said, “We stand in solidarity.”

“Black lives should matter to every individual and every medical professional,” the association added. “Racism breeds health inequalities impacting on our patients, it adversely affects our colleagues, and at its worst it kills, with black women five times more likely to die during childbirth than white women in the UK.

“These health inequalities are all too visible in the toll covid-19 is having on black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in the UK. More than 90% of doctors who have died from the virus to date are from a BAME background. Unless the government engages in actions, not just words, the covid-19 pandemic will continue to disproportionately impact on BAME healthcare workers and the communities they serve.”