A top official on the White House’s COVID-19 Response Team said Monday that the United States is 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 an understanding of existing inequalities is rooted in an understanding of the data. However, the US does not know race or ethnicity for 49% of those diagnosed with the new virus, or 47% for the same information among vaccine recipients.
“These insights from our data are critical to our ability to target and determine our response,” Nunez-Smith said during Monday’s briefing. “Without good data, we are at a disadvantage in terms of estate planning.”
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“We need to address these inadequate data points as an urgent priority,” she added.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted deep-seated and long-standing inequalities; Racial minorities are at 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 for the missing vaccination data just weeks after the country’s introduction, such as a “previous lack of federal coordination, the uneven rollout between states, inconsistent emphasis on equality in the earliest days of 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” on Jan. 19.
“As vaccine proliferation continues, ensuring racial equality will be important to mitigate the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people of color, prevent growing health inequalities and achieve broad immunity for the population,” the report reads. of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 50 million coronavirus vaccines have been distributed to states and more than 31 million doses have ended up in the arms of Americans.
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The CDC has race and ethnicity data available for 51% of approximately 19.4 million cases, or 9,940,836 infections. According to the figures, white populations are responsible for the highest rate of reported cases at 56% (or more than 5.5 million people), with Latino and Black populations next at 21% and 12% of cases, respectively with available data .
“That 49% of COVID-19 cases actually reflect the demographics of the other 51%, but it is more likely to reflect the inherent disparities in the way our data is collected and reported in different places based on of resources and how much equity is given priority, ”Nunez-Smith said at the briefing.
In terms of deaths from the new virus, the CDC has 77% of race and ethnicity data available, for 239,877 deaths of about 310,944, although the US has exceeded more than 442,000 total coronavirus-related deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Likewise, White populations had the highest death rate at 62%, with the Black and Latino populations significantly lagging at 16% and 13%, respectively. However, previously published ratios of the CDC List Black and Latino populations are nearly 3 times more likely to die from the virus compared to Caucasian individuals.