Critical limitations in U.S. federal data mask persistent inequities in COVID-19 impacts: report

LOS ANGELES, June 20 (Xinhua) -- There are critical limitations in U.S. federal data that have masked persistent inequities in COVID-19 impacts on ethnic groups in the country, said a recent CNN report.

Federal data is significantly incomplete, said the report. Race and ethnicity are missing for more than one in three cases and one in seven deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Age-adjusted data from the CDC since the start of the pandemic shows that the risk of dying from COVID-19 is still about two times higher for Black, Hispanic and American Indian people than White people, according to the report.

"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," Shah was quoted as saying.