Members of the LGBT community are at higher risk of experiencing severe symptoms of COVID-19, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the report, the CDC found that members of the LGBT community are more likely to have underlying health problems that put them at an increased risk of contracting the coronavirus and experiencing severe symptoms of the disease.
The report used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2017-2019, a collection of health surveys that collect demographic and health-related information from non-institutionalized US residents over the age of 18 to identify health inequalities.
“When age, gender, and study year are adjusted, sexual minority subjects have a higher prevalence than heterosexual subjects of self-reported cancer, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease (including myocardial infarction, angina, or coronary artery disease), obesity, smoking, diabetes, asthma, hypertension and stroke, ”the report states.
The report adds that racial and minority ethnic groups who are also members of the LGBT community are at an increased risk of experiencing severe coronavirus symptoms compared to their heterosexual counterparts. In addition, members of the LGBT community are more likely to face discrimination and stigmatization that can increase their risk of disease and limit their access to quality healthcare, the agency said.
“Individuals who are members of both sexual minorities and racial / ethnic minority groups may therefore experience a convergence of various social, economic and environmental disadvantages that increase chronic disease disparities and the risk of adverse COVID-19-related outcomes,” the report concluded. .
Since the early stages of the pandemic, the CDC has stated that those with underlying health problems, including older adults and the immunosuppressants, are at an increased risk of experiencing more severe symptoms and even death from the coronavirus.
The agency has also released data showing that Americans of color are up to three times more likely than white Americans to die from the coronavirus.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the country’s largest LGBT rights organization, released data in 2020 reflecting these findings from the CDC.
The organization’s report stated that members of the LGBT community were at increased risk of contracting the disease due to a number of factors, including jobs with high COVID-19 exposure, a wealth gap and a lack of health coverage.
“This report confirms what LGBTQ advocates and organizations have known all along: that our community is at greater risk and disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 health crisis,” said Alphonso David, president of the HRC. “It is critical that health inequalities in marginalized communities are taken up completely by government data collection so that they can be addressed quickly.”
The authors of Thursday’s CDC report stated that the current “COVID-19 surveillance systems” do not capture information about sexual orientation and called for more data to be collected about the LGBT community and the coronavirus.