Study: Black, Hispanic children disproportionately catch COVID

NEW HAVEN — Black children and Hispanic children came down with COVID-19 at such a greater rate than their white counterparts at eight hospitals in the Northeast that it was almost like the populations were dealing with “two different diseases,” Yale researchers said of looking at the data.

Researchers analyzed a sample of 281 pediatric patients across eight hospitals in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, finding that “three out of four children hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19 were Black or Hispanic” (23.3 percent were Black children and 51 percent were Hispanic children), according to a statement about the study from Yale University.

Further, most of the hospitals surveyed — which “serve diverse sociodemographic populations — with many having a predominantly non-Hispanic white population” also reported that the “majority of patients diagnosed with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 were Hispanic and/or Black,” researchers said.

By comparison, across the country, 38 percent of hospitalized adults 65 or older came from those demographic groups, researchers said.

According to the statement on the Northeast hospitals surveyed about pediatric patients, the majority of “patients presenting with severe respiratory issues were Hispanic teenagers with underlying health issues,” while “nearly all of the youths presenting with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) — which appears two to four weeks after COVID-19 infection — were 7 to 9 years old and had no preexisting conditions.”

“It was not what we expected,” said lead author Carlos Oliveira, assistant professor of pediatrics

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media Yale New Haven Hospital