Project #176:
Comparing Disparities in RSV, Influenza and Covid-19

Respiratory viruses can affect different people in different ways. For example, older people and those with poor immunity may be more vulnerable to infection and to more serious illness if infected. Research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that people who are more deprived or from ethnic minority communities may also be more vulnerable. In this project we plan to explore these inequalities in greater detail, and across three different respiratory viruses – COVID-19, influenza (or flu) and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). We will do this using a research platform called OpenSAFELY, which contains large scale NHS data on millions of people in England.

We plan to describe differences in the impact of these three viruses across demographic characteristics such as deprivation and ethnicity. We will describe how these differences may have changed over successive seasons as a result of the large social, economic, and health service disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We will also compare our inequality findings across different viruses. As the viruses are seasonal (people are infected more often during winter), exploring their similarities and differences can help us understand all three viruses more fully. This way, policy makers can plan better to help everyone get the care they need and reduce the differences in how sick people get from these viruses.