Variation in Reporting of the Race and Ethnicity of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths Across US States: April 12, 2020, and November 9, 2020.

Douglas, Megan D; Respress, Ebony; Gaglioti, Anne H; Li, Chaohua; Blount, Mitchell A; Hopkins, Jammie; Baltrus, Peter T; Willock, Robina Josiah; Caplan, Lee S; Dawes, Daniel E; Mack, Dominic

Despite growing evidence that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting communities of color, state-reported racial/ethnic data are insufficient to measure the true impact.We found that between April 12, 2020, and November 9, 2020, the number of US states reporting COVID-19 confirmed cases by race and ethnicity increased from 25 to 50 and 15 to 46, respectively. However, the percentage of confirmed cases reported with missing race remained high at both time points (29% on April 12; 23% on November 9). Our analysis demonstrates improvements in reporting race/ethnicity related to COVID-19 cases and deaths and highlights significant problems with the quality and contextualization of the data being reported.We discuss challenges for improving race/ethnicity data collection and reporting, along with opportunities to advance health equity through more robust data collection and contextualization. To mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on racial/ethnic minorities, accurate and high-quality demographic data are needed and should be analyzed in the context of the social and political determinants of health. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print April 15, 2021: e1-e8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306167).