The following is a media release from Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office. She was elected by voters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to serve the state in Washington DC in the US Senate. She is a Democrat.
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WASHINGTON DC – Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), and Karen Bass (D-Calif.)reintroduced the bicameral Equitable Data Collection and Disclosure on COVID-19 Act.
The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to collect and report racial and other demographic data on COVID-19 testing, treatment, vaccination, and fatality rates and use all available surveillance systems to post daily updates on the CDC website showing data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, sex, age, socioeconomic status, disability status, county, and other demographic information.
From the beginning of this pandemic, Black, brown, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people in the United States have suffered the largest burden of illness, hospitalization and death from COVID19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that AI/AN people are nearly four times as likely as white people to be hospitalized for COVID-19, and that Black and Hispanic/Latino people are about twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as white people. Nonetheless, significant gaps in data reporting remain. Even a year into the pandemic, race and ethnicity data is available for only half (51%) of COVID-19 cases.
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The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Representatives Adriano Espaillat(D-N.Y.), Brenda L. Lawrence (D-Mich.), Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), Val B. Demings (D-Fla.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Dwight Evans (D-Penn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-Ga.), Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.), and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.).
Specifically, the Equitable Data Collection and Disclosure on COVID-19 Act would require the reporting of the following data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, sex, age, socioeconomic status, disability status, county, and other demographic information:
- Data related to COVID-19 testing, including the number of individuals tested and the number of tests that were positive.
- Data related to treatment for COVID-19, including hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions and duration;
- Data related to COVID-19 outcomes, including fatalities;
- Data related to COVID-19 vaccinations, including the number and percentage of vaccines administered to each group, the number of vaccines offered, accepted, refused, and the most common reasons for refusal.
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It would also authorize $50 million in emergency supplemental funding to HHS to conduct or support data collection on the racial and ethnic implications of COVID-19, including supporting capacity building in state and local health departments to collect and transmit racial and ethnic data. Finally, it creates a Commission on Ensuring Data for Health Equity to provide guidance on how to better collect and analyze demographic data in responding to future public health emergencies.
“We are facing a crisis unlike anything in our lifetimes — and it is hitting communities of color, people with disabilities, low-income communities, and Indian Country especially hard,” said Senator Warren. “Because of government-sponsored discrimination and systemic racism, communities of color are on the frontlines of this pandemic. To effectively slow the spread of the virus and ensure our response is robust and equitable, we need comprehensive national data on who is getting infected, who is getting treatment, and who is dying. That is how we can truly contain COVID-19 and save lives.”
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“There is no disputing that this pandemic has disproportionately impacted Black, Brown and communities of color, and systemic racism in our public health system is to blame,” said Representative Lee. “We have been consistently fighting for targeted data collection to understand, address, and invest in providing life-saving resources to the communities hit the hardest. Especially during the vaccine distribution process, it’s more important now than ever to address racial health disparities. I’m proud to be working with Representatives Pressley, Kelly, and Bass, along with Senator Warren, to collect and publish demographic data so crucial to helping communities of color survive this pandemic.”
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“We have learned the hard way that if we do not require data collection on racial equity through legislation, we will never get it. When this pandemic began, the Centers for Disease Control refused to collect and analyze racial disparity data,” Congresswoman Kelly said. “Early data only came from courageous states that published their data and asked for help saving lives. Collecting race and ethnicity data is critically important to ensuring equitable vaccine access. Only with comprehensive and meticulous data can lawmakers enact policies that will truly aid communities that have been hardest hit.”
“The coronavirus is disproportionately killing Black people,” said Representative Bass. “This pandemic has exposed the deficiencies and inequalities of our healthcare system that Black communities know all too well, and have experienced for generations. As vaccines become available, now is the time for our nation’s leaders to use race-based data to finally address these disparities and save Black lives. The Equitable Data Collection and Disclosure on COVID-19 Act will put us one step closer to providing practical solutions to closing the inequalities in the healthcare system, which includes robust funding and resources to the hardest-hit communities.”
The Equitable Data Collection and Disclosure on COVID-19 Act is endorsed by the National Birth Equity Collaborative, Seattle Indian Health Board, and National Council of Urban Indian Health.
MetroWest Medical Center 
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