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Originally published on PatientEngagementHIT.com
By Sara Heath
– COVID-19 racial health disparities are still a problem in the US, although the nation is observing slight shifts in how those disparities manifest, according to a new CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Both Black and Hispanic populations still comprise a disproportionate share of COVID-19 decedents, but those shares are modestly shrinking for Black populations and growing for Hispanic populations.
Between February and May, Hispanic patients accounted for 14 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the US. In this latest MMWR, CDC reported Hispanic patients accounted for 24.2 percent of COVID-19 deaths, compared to being only 18.5 percent of the country.
Black communities, on the other hand, saw a slight dip in their share of COVID-19 deaths between May and August, although that share is still disproportionate to the total Black population in the US. Between May and August, Black people accounted for 18.7 percent of COVID-19 deaths (a 2.9 percentage-point drop from the February to May report), despite accounting for only 12.5 percent of the total US population.
In other words, Black and Hispanic patients are still bearing a disproportionate burden from the novel coronavirus, and that disproportionate burden is growing for Hispanic communities. Note that although just about half of COVID-19 decedents were non-Hispanic White, this racial demographic makes up about 63 percent of the total US population, suggesting they are not carrying a disproportionate disease burden.
