Top physician orgs urge COVID-19 mortality data by race, ethnicity

CHICAGO — Leading national physician organizations released a letter today urging the Trump Administration to collect, analyze, and make available data including race, ethnicity, and patients’ preferred spoken and written language related to the testing status, hospitalization, and mortality associated with COVID-19.

“It is well-documented that social and health inequities are long-standing and systemic disturbances to the wellness of marginalized, minoritized, and medically underserved communities,” the letter says. “While COVID-19 has not created the circumstances that have brought about health inequities, it has and will continue to severely exacerbate existing and alarming social inequities along racial and ethnic lines, e.g., in housing stability, in employment status, in health care access, and in food security.”