Sonya Abraham is a clinical senior lecturer in rheumatology and a research physician at Imperial College London. We talk to her about BAME representation in clinical research and about her rheumatology research, including the role of the microbiome, and what COVID19 researchers can learn from existing rheumatology research.
We talk about why diversity is important in clinical trials, and the COVID19 pandemic's impact in the BAME community. We also discuss with Sonya how people with immune conditions, like Ankylosing Spondylitis, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and others are at greater risk from COVID19, and uncertainties around the impact of common drugs on COVID19 severity. Finally, we discuss why drugs that were originally used in rheumatology are now providing effective for COVID19 treatment.