Abstract: Background: Recent reports indicate racial disparities in the rates of infection and mortality from the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to explore differences in the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 between populations of different races
Methods: Using data provided by SafeGraph, we explored racial disparities in the number of cases and deaths related to COVID-19 between Jan 22, 2020 and Oct 15, 2020. The main focus of this paper was to determine whether or not racial and socioeconomic disparities exist in the health and economic impacts of COVID -19. Due to the constraints of time and data quality, “Black”, “Asian” and “Hispanic” patients were all grouped together and are herein, labeled as “Non-White”. Data was analyzed at both county and state levels. All data manipulation and analysis were completed using Python 3.
Results: Compared to Non-White patients, White patients were more likely to be diagnosed and subsequently die from COVID-19 (51.6% vs 48.3%). Secondly, we found racial disparities in the levels of pre-existing comorbidities and a positive correlation between patient comorbidities and risk of death from COVID-19. More importantly, we found that although “Black” and “Hispanic” patients were more likely to have higher rates of unemployment, they were also more likely to return promptly into the workforce. Rural communities were more likely to have fewer ICU beds. Finally, there was no correlation between population density, Health Professional Shortage Area index and COVID-related mortality by race.
Conclusions: Racial disparities exist in the levels of cases, mortality and economic impacts of COVID-19 in the United States. More work is needed to fully characterize these effects at a more granular level, in order to identify populations that are at higher risk of economic burden. This information can be important for policy discussions and optimizing use of government aid, by targeting communities that are more likely to benefit from economic aid.
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