Dying by Numbers

British patriots and respecters of our island heritage will be thanking the national goodness for our lack of institutional racism, given that black men on the island of England and Wales are three times more likely than white men to die from the coronavirus, or four times more likely if young children and men aged sixty-five and older aren't counted. White males are also safer than those from the Raj; and there are smaller but significant differences between the chances of white and non-white women. Even more reassuringly, there are also divergences in the death rates for religious groups: after suspected terrorists the greatest losses are among Jewish men, doubtless thanks to the entire absence of antisemitism in the governing party. People whose daily activities are seriously limited by a disability are also twice as likely to die; though fortunately, according to Britain's leading liberal newspaper, only as an afterthought.