As such, they may remain at increased risk as the pandemic continues to evolve and for future health threats, such as the Monkeypox virus, for which early data show similar disparities emerging. While disparities in cases and deaths have narrowed and widened over time, the underlying structural inequities in health and health care and social and economic factors that placed people of color at increased risk at the outset of the pandemic remain. However, in the age-adjusted data, White people have lower death rates than AIAN, Black, and Hispanic people over most of the course of the pandemic and disparities are larger for AIAN, Black, and Hispanic people, reflecting an older White population and higher rates of death across all age groups among people of color compared to White people.Ĭontinuing to assess COVID-19 health impacts by race/ethnicity is important for both identifying and addressing disparities and preventing against further widening of disparities in health going forward. In data that has not been adjusted for age, there were some periods when death rates for White people were higher than or similar to some groups of color. Disparities in infections and deaths have both widened and narrowed at various times over the course of the pandemic, with disparities generally widening during periods in which the virus has surged and narrowing when overall infection rates fall.Total cumulative data show Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) people have experienced higher rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to White people when data are adjusted to account for differences in age by race and ethnicity.It updates a February 2022 analysis to reflect data through mid-2022, amid the ongoing surge associated with the Omicron variant. This brief examines racial disparities in COVID-19 cases and deaths and how they have changed over time based on KFF analysis of data on COVID-19 infections and deaths from CDC.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, analyses of federal, state, and local data have shown that people of color have experienced a disproportionate burden of cases and deaths.

Cdc 2020 death totals