In the U.S. of A, Pacific Islanders Are Dying
They are being killed from coronavirus at a rate 12 times higher than whites.
No other group in California is dying from the coronavirus at a higher rate than Pacific Islanders — a painful statistic that’s shaking up tight-knit communities of Samoans, Tongans and Native Hawaiians up and down the state.
And no other hub has been worse-hit than Los Angeles County, home to 11 of the 17 Pacific Islanders who’ve died in the state, according to public health data. Compton-based pastor Pausa Thompson said he knows or recognizes most of those who have died in the community.
“We are very, very connected,” said Thompson, head pastor at Dominguez Samoan Congregational Christian Church. “I can trace the connections even to where their villages are back home.”
Pacific Islanders account for a small fraction of the 1700-plus deaths posted statewide. But the death toll is staggering for a state population of Pacific Islanders that stands shy of roughly 120,000, according to census data.
Using recent figures from the California Department of Public Health and data from the L.A. County Department of Public Health*, LAist found that:
In L.A. County, the death rate for Pacific Islanders is 71 deaths per 100,000 people.
The death rate for Pacific Islanders in L.A. County is 12 times higher than it is for whites, 9 times higher than for Asians, 7 times higher than for Latinos, 5 times higher than for African Americans
In L.A. County, Pacific Islanders are seeing an infection rate of 840 cases per 100,000 people. Latinos have the next highest prevalence of cases: 114 per 100,000.
Statewide, Pacific Islanders are more than three times as likely as whites and Latinos to die from the disease and nearly twice as likely to die as African Americans.
“It’s very, very worrisome,” said Paul Simon, chief science officer at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “It really demands that we work much more actively with this community and
I think the wheels are already in motion on that.” LAist