Policy Recommendations to Address High Risk of COVID-19 Among Immigrants.

Langellier, Brent A

The health and economic consequences of COVID-19 will be devastatingly widespread, but the populations that will suffer most are those who have experienced longstanding health disparities. For example, emerging evidence strongly suggests that incidence and case fatality rates are higher among Blacks than Whites.1 Immigrants are among the groups most likely to experience disproportionate effects from COVID-19. Unlike race/ethnicity, however, nativity and citizenship status are not included on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) coronavirus case report form,2 so data regarding testing and spread across immigrant groups are likely to remain scarce. Information from other health and social surveys-including data that I present in Table 1-suggest that noncitizens experience barriers to physical distancing that will place them at high risk of contracting COVID-19 and have high levels of disadvantage that leave them vulnerable to its economic effects. I recommend three policy changes to address the high health and economic risk among noncitizens, goals that are in the best interest of public health and the broader economy. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 25, 2020: e1-e3. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305792).