Working-Age Latinos Face COVID-19 Death 11 Times Higher Based on USC Study
Compared to the United States-born men and women who do not have Hispanic blood, Latinos of working ages 20 to 54 years old are 11 times more prone to die of COVID-19 based on a study of the University of Southern California released on Monday.
Based on Erika Garcia, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the first author of the study, the state of California needs to deliver the vaccines, treatments, and other interventions to a demographics that serves as the backbone of California's service and agricultural industries.
According to NBC Los Angeles, Garcia added that they have known since early that people of color are more likely to die because of the coronavirus. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously stated that Latinos or Hispanics, have a 2.3 times higher risk of dying than non-Hispanics, but Garcia mentioned that they were astonished when they saw that there much higher disparities, especially in the working-age group.
Moreover, the study also shows that when young, foreign-born Latinos were checked, researchers found that COVID-19 related deaths as a proportion of the typical total deaths, as it was 11.6 times higher compared to young individuals who are born in the U.S. and non-Hispanics. The disparities continued when their study includes the education level, which served as a proxy for socioeconomic status in the study.
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Furthermore, the study, which was published on March 29, in the Annals of Epidemiology, looked at 2020 California death certificates. Researchers who checked the data are able to identify 10,200 COVID-19 deaths in California that happened in the middle of February until July of last year.
Also, researchers found the death certificate data more useful in their study as it includes information that connects an individual to a historically marginalized group, which includes immigrants, who were underrepresented in terms of insurance and health care systems.
Researchers cited that Black men and women ages 20 to 54 years old have a COVID-19 death rate which is close to five times compared to Whites. Among Latinos of the same age, both U.S.-born and foreign-born have 8 times higher death rate compared to Whites.
Garcia also mentioned that while the younger populations are experiencing lower mortality overall, they should not be left out of public health interventions, USC News reported.
Latinos in Colorado
From the start of the pandemic, researchers found that COVID-19 was affecting all communities differently. The study of CDC also prompted the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to take action as Vanessa Bernal said that there is a need of communicating with non-English speakers.
Bernal, a bilingual media specialist for the Prevention Services Division at the state health department, shared that the pandemic exploits all the vulnerabilities of the society and makes health disparities. She also added that since social and economic inequities are so deeply embedded into the system, it also requires solutions that are hard but can create positive outcomes for people of color. She also added that the department of health has been taking the extra mile in reaching Latinos and Spanish-speaking Coloradans, Summit Daily reported.
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WATCH: How and why COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting Latinos FROM -ABC News
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