Over the past few months, two unique trends have emerged: For the first time in the pandemic, Covid-19 case rates in the United States are higher among Asian people, and death rates are higher among White people than any other racial or ethnic group. These trends are a marked shift among groups that, data suggests, have tended to fare better overall during the pandemic. But there are critical limitations in federal data that mask persistent inequities, experts say. “Even though we’ve closed some of the large disparities we saw early on, there are still continued disparities in several areas,” said Dr. Sarita Shah, a clinical care provider and infectious disease epidemiologist at Emory University. “There has been a lot of progress because we identified those issues early on. But I do want to underscore that we are still seeing disparities that really reflect underlying systemic gaps in many areas that disproportionately affect people of color and minorities.”A more focused look at the dataFirst, federal data is significantly incomplete. Race and ethnicity are missing for more than 1 in 3 cases and 1 in 7 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”If you just take a look at the national data, you basically wash out everything, and you’re unable to understand the actual pandemic stories that are playing out on the ground in different communities,” said Stefanie Friedhoff, a researcher and leader at the Brown University School of Public Health. It’s likely that the missing data may also skew toward underrepresented populations — those with language barriers who may not be able to communicate their race or ethnicity, for example — said Dr. Carlos Oronce, a primary care physician and president-elect of the Filipinx/a/o Community Health Association.That could lead to “making conclusions off of a sample of a population that may not even reflect the true phenomenon of what’s going on,” he said. Second, age-adjustment matters. Life expectancy and age distribution differ by race and ethnicity, and adjusting for age standardizes that difference.According to the CDC, …
Trends are shifting, but Covid-19 and its effects are still not equitable – CNN
