Coronavirus cases, deaths should be consistently tracked by race, ethnicity

Health disparities by race in this country are well documented. African American mothers are more likely to die in childbirth, or shortly after, than white moms. Rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity are also higher in racial minorities, who are also more likely to die from these diseases. And studies have shown many of these inequalities exist even when you take income out of the equation.

Yet, as the country battles its biggest health crisis in decades, with no end in sight, our federal and state health officials have not been consistent in tracking deaths from COVID-19 by race or ethnicity. This despite the fact that all the underlying health conditions people of color are more likely to suffer from will increase their chances of death from COVID-19.

In Florida, state officials are tracking such data but race and ethnicity of many coronavirus victims are often listed as “unknown,” according to the latest figures provided to the Sun Sentinel from the state’s Joint Information Center on COVID-19. In Broward, for example, there were 1,886 confirmed cases, but 641 cases, or 34 percent, were classified as “unknown” race or ethnicity. In Miami-Dade, it was even higher at 43 percent; Palm Beach was even higher, at 54 percent.

African American lawmakers across the country, are calling for this vital demographic information to be included in data collection and released to the public — and rightfully so. The federal government and states are already tracking deaths and cases by age, gender and geographic location, why would they not make the data available by race as well? Health officials will not get a clear and detailed picture of the progression of the disease if they don’t.

American cities with large African American populations — including Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and New Orleans —are quickly becoming hot spots for the virus, and the handful of areas that have begun collecting race data show black residents are disproportionately affected. Perhaps testing needs to be targeted in such communities.

On Thursday, for example, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released COVID-19 data on its residents that included breakdowns by age, sex, race and ethnicity. It showed black and African Americans make up 35 percent of their confirmed COVID-19 cases to date, even though they make up only 12 percent of the population. Blacks account for 40 percent of Michigan’s coronavirus deaths. Now they must dig into the reasons why there’s such a disparity.

At the federal level, several lawmakers — including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts; Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey; and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois — sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, calling for the collection of comprehensive demographic data on people who are tested or treated for the virus.

“Decades of structural racism have prevented so many Black and Brown families from accessing quality health care, affordable housing and financial security, and the coronavirus crisis is blowing these disparities wide open,” Sen, Warren said in a statement. “We need the government to step up in a big way to ensure that communities of color have equal access to free testing and treatment.”

ProPublica, the investigative journalism website, reported Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not even respond to their questions about race data being collected of those with the coronavirus.

Studies have shown that bias, whether explicit or implicit, can sometimes result in racial minorities not getting the best care. For instance, it has been found that doctors don’t always believe African Americans pain levels, so will give them inadequate doses of medication.

Race data can show patterns of treatment for coronavirus. Are people of color getting tested, and are they being hospitalized? Or are they being turned away by doctors and not diagnosed until the symptoms are so bad there is little chance of survival? We have to collect the data to know this.

Already, there have been stories about COVID-19 victims who died after doctors didn’t test them early enough.

Virginia is recording race, but the system is inconsistent. A chart provided by the Virginia Department of Health showed that the information was missing for most of the cases.

That is unacceptable. Collecting complete demographic data must be prioritized as the spread of the disease intensifies if we are to correct any disparities now, in real time. We don’t want to discover a year from now that something more could have been done to save lives. Having this information in retrospect will be too late.