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A senior White House COVID-19 response team official said on Monday that the United States was missing nearly half of the race and ethnicity data for coronavirus cases and vaccinations.
Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of President Biden’s COVID-19 equity task force, said understanding existing disparities hinges on understanding the data. However, the United States does not know the race or ethnicity of 49% of those diagnosed with the new virus, or 47% for the same information among those vaccinated.
“This insight from our data is critical to our ability to target and sort our response,” Nunez-Smith said in Monday’s briefing. “Without good data, we are at a disadvantage in terms of equity planning.”
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“We need to treat these insufficient data points as an urgent priority,” she added.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted deep-rooted and long-standing inequalities; racial minorities suffer an increased risk of hospitalization and death from the new virus compared to white individuals, although rates vary by race / ethnicity.
Nunez-Smith cited several reasons behind missing immunization data just weeks after the country’s launch, such as “lack of federal coordination previously, uneven deployment between states, inconsistent emphasis on fairness in the early days vaccination “.
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According to recent findings from the Kaiser Family Foundation, only “17 states publicly reported COVID-19 vaccination data by race / ethnicity” as of January 19.
As vaccine distribution continues, ensuring racial equity will be important to mitigate the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on people of color, prevent widening health disparities and achieve broad immunity of the population, ”the Kaiser Family Foundation report reads.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 50 million coronavirus vaccines have been distributed in states and more than 31 million doses have passed through the arms of Americans.
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The CDC has race and ethnicity data for 51% of the estimated 19.4 million cases, or 9,940,836 infections. According to the numbers, white populations represent the highest percentage of reported cases with 56% (or more than 5.5 million people), with the Latin black and black populations ranking respectively at 21% and 12% of cases with of the data available.
“That 49% of COVID-19 cases may in fact reflect the demographics of the remaining 51%, but it is more likely to reflect the inequalities inherent in the way our data is collected and reported in different places depending on resources. and the level of equity is a priority, ”Nunez-Smith said during the briefing.
When it comes to deaths from the new virus, the CDC has 77% of the race and ethnicity data available, for 239,877 deaths out of some 310,944, although the United States has exceeded 442,000 coronavirus-related deaths in total. , according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Likewise, white populations had the highest percentage of deaths at 62%, with black and Latin populations significantly behind by 16% and 13%, respectively. However, previously published rate reports from the CDC list Black and Latin populations are nearly 3 times more likely to die from the virus than white individuals.
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