Covid-19 has pushed to the forefront longtime health disparities among black, brown, Native American and other minority populations in the country. Health professionals have warned that black and Latino populations are at potentially greater risk of severe illness from the coronavirus, due to prevalent comorbidities such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and asthma.

Minority groups are also less likely to have health insurance, complicating their ability and willingness to seek treatment for illnesses.

“If you look at pretty much any disease process, African Americans have higher rates or poorer outcomes for those diseases,” said Dr. Ebony Hilton-Buchholz, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the University of Virginia. “We’re seeing that race literally is an independent risk factor for many of these disease processes. And it’s heightened [under Covid-19].”

Harder hit, but trouble getting tested

One dataset shows that minorities appear to have more difficulty getting tested for coronavirus. A team of doctors at the Universities of Virginia and Pittsburgh, partnering with the data-tracking firm Rubix, used data from seven states and more than 103 hospital groups and patient advocacy networks to show that thousands of minority patients were not receiving testing for the coronavirus despite showing symptoms.

Hilton-Buchholz pointed to New York, New Orleans and Atlanta as cities that are behind on equitable testing practices. Despite being home to large black and Latino populations, Louisiana is the only one of those three states that has released racial-ethnic data about testing, diagnosis or hospitalization from Covid-19. In Virginia, where Hilton-Buchholz practices, 53 percent of racial-ethnic data is listed as “unreported.”

“This is probably one of the most important lessons that we've learned from [Hurricane] Katrina, [from] the 2008 financial crisis: If we're not paying attention to data that is disaggregated by race and ethnicity, the efforts that we often put in place wash right over those communities and miss them,” said Michael McAfee, CEO of PolicyLink, a research institute focused on racial equity.

In Milwaukee County, Wis., as of Monday, African Americans make up almost half of confirmed coronavirus cases and 73 percent of the 45 deaths — compared with 26 percent of the county population. “A big reason why we see higher rates of Covid-19 in the [black] community is the institutional, historical, currently ongoing issue of lack of resources, and institutional and individual effects of racism,” said Dr. Benjamin Weston, director of Medical Services for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. “It certainly isn't coincidence why that community suffers the greater burden of the vast majority of diseases in our county.”

It’s an issue being raised in Congress, which has already passed legislation to spend $2 trillion in emergency funds combating the epidemic and its economic effects. Last week, five Democratic legislators sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services seeking the collection and release of coronavirus information related to race and ethnicity. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and several colleagues are planning to follow up with a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking for more reports on prevalence of coronavirus among people of color.