COVID-19 racial data could save lives

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone who lives in Canada. It has not, however, affected everyone or every group equally.

After more than two months of bitter experience, we know the novel coronavirus that causes this illness is especially dangerous to the elderly and that, as a result, it has cut a deadly swath though the nation’s long-term-care residences. Knowing this spurred government action to help this vulnerable group, and that was the correct response.

But legitimate concerns have also been voiced that race and ethnicity could play a role in who becomes ill and even who dies from the disease. The residents of remote, impoverished Indigenous communities, for instance, could face elevated risks from the virus. As of yet, we don’t definitively know if this is so, and that’s a serious oversight Indigenous people could heavily pay for.

Now, in answer to these concerns and the datavacuum behind them, the governments of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have decided to track the race and ethnicity of COVID-19 patients.

Good for them. This is a major if unusual step that could prove controversial in some circles. But gathering this information is the necessary and right thing to do. So much about the novel coronavirus remains a mystery. How contagious is it? Are some people more susceptible to being infected by it and, if so, why? The more hard science we have about this viral scourge, the more we can help its victims, and even slow its spread. We should all want that.

Yet some people will have qualms. In the past, critics of collecting race-based data connected to crime have complained that publicizing such information could fuel racism. While that’s a reasonable objection, such information could also determine whether law enforcement officers are discriminating against certain minority groups. That’s exactly why Toronto police began collecting race-based data earlier this year and why the move was applauded by Notisha Massaquoi, co-chair of the city police board’s anti-racism advisory panel.

Policing and pandemics are different matters. But it’s established fact that in some countries, COVID-19 is hitting certain racial groups harder than others. American researchers found that although 20 per cent of counties in the United States were disproportionately Black, those counties account for 52 per cent of the nation’s COVID-19 cases and 58 per cent its COVID-19 deaths. Likewise, a major British study that drew on the health records of 17.4 million people concluded Black and Asian Britons were far more at risk of dying in a hospital from COVID-19 than other groups.

Could the same thing be happening in Canada? We need to know because the information could uncover inequities in Canadian society and its provision of health care. It could also save lives. In Chicago, public health officials stepped up their response to the pandemic in Black neighbourhoods — and that included more widespread testing — after realizing how they were being hammered hardest in the city

Of course, untangling why some groups might be more vulnerable to COVID-19 isn’t easy. It could come down to systemic racism. Poverty and inferior access to health care could be factors. So could a prevalence of underlying health conditions such as obesity or diabetes in certain communities.

What we do know is that learning more about COVID-19 in every way will boost our odds of beating it. However this virus is transmitted, we’re certain ignorance spreads in the dark. Every province and territory should begin tracking the disease in their racial and ethnic communities. And whatever the findings are, they should be made public.