Mohammed & Shirin

Age at interview: 71

Brief Outline:

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Bangladeshi
Background: Mohammed is 71 years old and is Bangladeshi. He is retired and lives with his wife and their son’s family. Mohammed heard about Covid on the news but experienced it himself after he developed symptoms in October 2020. Mohammed was worried about how hospitals would treat an elderly, Asian person, but was pleased with his treatment.

Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Bangladeshi
Background: Shirin is 59 years old and is Bangladeshi. She works as an outreach lead for a health organisation, and lives with her husband and their son’s family. 
Brief Outline: Shirin found everyone being house-bound very stressful, and was glad to be a key worker so she had a reason to leave the house. 
 

 

More about me...

Mohammed was the first in the family to get symptoms in October 2020. He felt concerned about his health at the start of the pandemic because his age and medical history of diabetes, high blood pressure, and anaemia placed him in the vulnerable category.
 
When Mohammed got Covid he felt reluctant to go to hospital even though he was very sick and was having difficulty breathing. This was because they had heard rumours that hospitals didn’t care about older or ethnic minority patients. Mohammed’s daughter called an ambulance for him and he feels that he were treated well in hospital, despite some of the stories they’d heard.
 
Mohammed feels that ethnic minority people, especially Asian, people may have struggled more with accessing healthcare services during the pandemic, as hospital staff don’t always speak the same language as their patients and the patients feel isolated. Mohammed also feels that booking a GP appointment has become harder during the pandemic, as you can’t book an appointment weeks in advance and people often don’t have the confidence or language skills to make appointments over the phone. Mohammed had to call his GP to ask to receive the vaccine, as his GP didn’t call him when he first became eligible to receive it. Generally, Mohammed feels that GPs’ practices have worked less well during the pandemic.
 
Months after first having Covid symptoms, Mohammed still feels weak and tired, and feels that they may have long Covid. Mohammed had been referred to a Covid recovery unit, where he went to hospital for six weeks to exercise, but he still feels weak. Mohammed is still worried about Covid and feels that the government needs to invest in educating ethnic minority communities to prevent more health inequality later. He feels that the government did a good job of making people aware of the pandemic, but it still needs to treat Asian people as a part of the country by looking after their health. 

Shirin first heard of Covid in March 2020 before the lockdown, when her work sent an email telling her that she wouldn’t work face-to-face for a while. Shirin felt very worried during the pandemic, as she works multiple zero-hour contract jobs and wasn’t sure if she would get furlough pay. She found that the lockdowns were very stressful, as she and her husband were sharing a house with their daughter, son, and daughter-in-law (who was expecting a baby). Shirin feels glad to have been a key-worker as a main job during the pandemic, as she feels that it gave her a reason to get out of the house and helped avoid boredom.
 
Shirin’s son and husband were the first to develop Covid symptoms, before Shirin and her daughter, who tested positive later. Shirin didn’t experience any symptoms but kept testing positive for six weeks. She checked with her brother, who works with people researching Covid, and was advised to talk to a specialist. She feels grateful to have access to this kind of advice, and feels that more people need to be supported like this by healthcare professionals. 
 
Shirin was also supported by her daughter’s friend when her husband needed hospital treatment for Covid. Shirin’s daughter’s friend is a nurse and could tell the family what treatments to ask for – as well as reassure Shirin that her husband wouldn’t be treated unfairly despite being an elderly and ethnic minority person.
 
Racism has impacted Shirin’s experience of the pandemic, as she feels that healthcare professionals use different tones when the patient is White or Asian. Shirin found that Asian patients didn’t receive the same sympathy as White patients when they complained, and that this makes it harder for ethnic minority patients. She feels that the news exaggerated fear of Covid in ethnic minority communities by reporting that they were at higher risk, and feels this led people to make untrue assumptions about these communities.
 
Shirin feels that Test-and-Trace calls weren’t helpful and their daughter blocked their number because they were so annoying. Shirin feels that callers should speak another language than English, as not everyone they’re calling will speak English.

 

Shirin and Mohammed said that BME people were being blamed for spreading Covid.

You remember they were really saying that black and minority Asian, but black and Asian and minority ethnic people are more at risk from Covid. What did you make sense of that then?
 
Shirin: I thought that was very negative. I don’t know why they had to say that in the news because you know like people.
 
Mohammed: Really scared and afraid.
 
Shirin: Not so afraid, it’s about you giving the wrong impression to other communities that we are more affected that shouldn’t be highlighted. That should be hidden agenda, confidential, isn’t it.
 
Mohammed: Yes, this was exaggerated. They’re not telling the true picture. Blaming the BME people. But Covid does not choose who is going to catch the disease [laughs].
 
Shirin: It’s for everybody. You can get it, anybody. It’s not like BME.
 

 

Mohammed realised he might have Covid when he lost his appetite and sense of taste.

I something from, I had some temperature, I lost my appetite and the taste as well. I felt weak. So, these two, three things I experienced. And when I, I didn’t realise that it is a symptoms of Covid, so I talked about that, I don’t feel the taste. I cannot eat. And at that I realised that I might have Covid. I had some temperature.

Mohammed said that some people in the Asian community thought Covid was ‘a kind of sin’, but that it was becoming easier to talk openly about it.

Even there is a tendency among the, particularly Asian community, if one who has got Covid, they did not want to expose it. They felt that like, the Covid is a kind of sin. Sorry?
 
Like a sin did you say?
 
Yeah, yeah. They think that, yes, it’s not a good thing. So if we have Covid, if people know, other family members, or other friends know, they think themselves that they are not good people. But yeah, it changed, because this, Covid has got widespread on the wider community, then they realise that it is not an offensive thing. So.

 

Mohammed and Shirin were relieved Mohammed received good care in hospital after hearing worrying rumours.

Shirin: And then there was another negative things where you hearing from people’s experience, oh, I actually talked to someone who works in a hospital and he said to me, he’s a nurse in hospital [hospital name]. He was saying like, “You know, if you’re old and especially you’re from a black and ethnic minority community, they don’t really care. They just leave you at one side because they’re more concerned about the…younger people.”
 
Mohammed: Yes, we heard this rumour!
 
Shirin: Younger people. So, you got worried, and I said oh my God, I’m not sending my husband to hospital if he becomes with Covid.
 
Mohammed: When I, when I realised, I had Covid, I was somewhere reluctant to go to hospital. But my daughter forced me to go to hospital, she called the ambulance and sent me to hospital. I heard one of the story, in London, on my nephews says, one of the gentleman, he went to hospital with Covid, and after an hour, the hospital declared he’d died. And they were really concerned. The family was concerned that, they realised that the hospital is not really any sort of proper treatment, because of his age. So, I was really concerned. That’s why I was afraid, I was worried about, not to go to hospital [laughs]. Although, after I went to hospital I just said, they treated me well, of course.
 

Shirin was worried that people who struggle with English would receive worse care in hospital.

I think the news that we had especially if you’re from black and ethnic minority they’re not able to speak the language, express yourself, and if you’re an older person, they just left you to one side and ignored you while they were dealing with other people. So, basically, hearing people who had actually gone into hospital, they were saying that kind of thing, so we, we became very worried with things. So, I was sort of like reluctant to send my husband to hospital when we did find out he’s got Covid and we all became positive, you know. And my daughter was really, her, one of her friends was a nurse and she was training to be a nurse in the, I says, “[Name], don’t worry, ‘cos I work there. Don’t listen to the people. They’re gonna not do that.” So, she said, “You sure you gotta be able to go and see my dad if something happens.” And she said, “Yes.” And then she said that, “Don’t worry, your dad can speak English. I don’t think there should be any problem. And then you can always have Facetime and talk to them on the phone.” So, we did send him after, but then afterwards, we were a bit worried that he was on oxygen for quite long, ten days. So, it was a worry because you hear of people, but thank god he came back.

Shirin worried about rumours that vaccine ingredients weren’t halal.

I think my brother said that I, I wasn’t very keen on having the vaccine at the beginning. My brother said, “No, go and have it. Don’t listen to the news. Don’t listen to other people.” There were people saying they were putting like animal things, not halal and not haram and had been checked by the Iman and everything. And my brother said, “It depends on each individual condition how the vaccines, all medications are like every medication whether you take Paracetamol, any medication they all have side effects afterwards.”

Shirin describes the experience of being an Asian patient.

Do you feel like if you are a white person, in the same situation, you know, your husband going to hospital, everybody feeling frightened about what’s happening, the care you received would be different?
 
I think it will be. ‘Cause I’ve seen it with the white people how they do it. I’ve seen all this.
 
Can you, can you elaborate and how does it, how is it different?
 
How is it different, for example, when it’s a white person, you see the way they talk to them. You see the way they talk to them. The language tone they use. The things you use and when you’re an Asian person, they just want to do everything quick, quick, quick. Throw you out the door. You are done. That’s it. I understand, but not everybody can.
 
In the care home because I know one of my managers and I said, “Oh God, look at the way.” If it’s, if it’s the white client and they got something straight away called the ambulance, okay and the way they described it. When the Asian person then they say, “He’s always moaning about this. He’s always doing this. He’s got nothing.” I said, “How do you know he hasn’t got a pain?”, and she said, “Oh, Shirin you should stop talking. You’re a kitchen assistant. You go back to your job.”

 

Shirin explains how people internalise negative stories about their communities.

I think Covid really affected our community and that’s where people are hiding and they are saying we are poison, if you go near people, they are sick. We are very affected. We are the one whose gonna spread the germs around, you know. So, obviously, that’s how they, media and the public are portraying the community. If you had never dealt with BME people, never communicated. You hear this is the news, what do you hear? You hear the negative things. Negative things goes into your head. As soon as you see a BME, a black person on the street, you want to go away from them. They are the most affected person that’s it. If you go near them, that’s it, you’re killed, next day.