The full picture: Why we need more demographic data on COVID-19

By now, we ’re all familiar with the immense strain the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on our health care system, with many medical facilities across the country overburdened by high demand and limited supply as they attempt to deal with an influx of affected patients.But the crisis has also highlighted other health care challenges, including those related to health equity and the striking disparity in risk and outcomes among racial and ethnic groups. Current data show, for instance, that African Americans and Latinos are much more likely than others to be infected and die from the disease. Still, demographic information remains sparse, especially for groups like Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and American Indians and Alaska Natives.Ninez Ponce, director of the  UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and a professor of health policy and management at theUCLA Fielding School of Public Health, is working to address these concerns. She spoke to us about the need to collect data on underrepresented groups, what this means for navigating COVID-19 and future public health crises, and how anew tool developed by the center can help policymakers, journalists and others better understand the pandemic.How is the COVID-19 pandemic shedding light on the nation ’s health care system?In a pandemic, we ’re all at risk, and timely access to health care is crucial in order to diagnose, control and treat patients affected by the disease. Like other public health crises, t...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news