REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File PhotoWhile other nations had data showing a worryingly disproportionate infection rate among ethnic minorities, France had no such information due to a long-standing taboo on compiling citizens’ race intended to prevent discrimination. In the end, 42-year-old Delpierre turned to data compiled by Imperial College in London on Britain’s epidemic for clues about how the disease could also be affecting France. “We’re too politically correct in France,” said Ghyslain Vedeux, who heads advocacy group the Representative Council of Black Associations. Delpierre and colleagues are surveying 5,000 people to gauge the impact of socio-economic context on the virus. Nowhere in France has the coronavirus been felt more acutely than Seine-Saint-Denis, an impoverished north Paris outskirt with a large immigrant population.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 16, 2020 10:52 UTC