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| 7.15.20

COVID-19 is claiming the lives of Blacks & Hispanics at higher rates than Asians & Whites

Should agencies research racial disparities in COVID-19 death rates?

By Eric Revell, Countable News

This content leverages data from USAFacts, a non-profit that visualizes governmental data. You can learn more on its website, Facebook, and Twitter.

What’s the story?

  • After adjusting for population, the COVID-19 death rates for Black and Hispanic Americans are higher than those of White & Asian Americans in every age group.
  • In all age groups, Black people are experiencing the highest death rates, while death rates among Asians generally fall between those of White & Hispanic populations as this USAFacts chart shows:

  • The gap between Black & Hispanic Americans and their White counterparts is at its largest in younger age groups. This USAFacts chartbreaks down the disparity by age group, which shows that, for example, in the 35-44 age group Black people are over 8 times more likely to die than Whites, while Hispanics are over 7 times more likely to die than Whites:

  • The disparities in COVID-19 death rates vary not only among racial groups, but between states. For example, the COVID-19 death rate for Blacks over the age of 65 in Wisconsin was 9.9 times higher than Whites as this USAFacts chartshows:
  • USAFacts notes:
“As this data shows, tracking the experience of COVID-19 by race and age is critical to understanding which populations are being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. It is essential that the CDC continues to update this data. It is also critical for more state and local public health agencies to disaggregate their COVID-19 data by race for a fuller account of differences by state. With this data, public health officials can target policies to best address the disparities in death rates experienced by racial groups shown in the CDC data.”

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / JONGHO SHIN)