Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Population-Level Covid-19 Mortality

Excerpt

Alarming racial and ethnic disparities have been reported regarding risk of Covid-19 infection, access to testing, and adverse outcomes. Nevertheless, as of mid-April, many states were not reporting Covid-19 mortality by race and ethnicity.¹ Among states that are reporting race/ethnicity data, the completeness of the data and the magnitude of population-mortality disparities remain unclear. Furthermore, the profound differences in population age distribution across racial and ethnic groups are infrequently incorporated into analyses, potentially leading to substantial underestimates of disparities. We therefore evaluated the completeness of race and ethnicity reporting in Covid-19 mortality data across states, and estimated age-adjusted disparities in population mortality rates. …