Deliberate Data for Covid Cases

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Where it started?

In the beginning of Spring 2020 the United States and the world had to learn quickly what the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) was and how to treat it. February 2020 the first Covid-19 case was detected and by mid-March all 50 states had positive tests with individuals with the virus (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr). As time progressed so did the infection rate and the number of deaths from the virus. Testing was scarcely available when President Donald Trump announced the Covid-19 a National Emergency. The barrage of events that followed the timeline of Covid after Trump only aided in the spreading of the virus with little but testing to consul the people (https://www.ajmc.com/view/a-timeline-of-covid19-developments-in-2020). Money was handed out to those that lost their jobs and the CDC recommends that everyone social distance and wear a mask.

Where it was going?

Where the rubber meets the road is no where close to under privileged family's and communities. Areas that were Hispanic or African American were hardest hit because the scarcity of testing available. The CDC had specific data covering the number of infections and deaths due to the Coronavirus but the correlation between those numbers and the hot spots where specific communities were located was unclear at the time. In July of 2020 different news reporting agencies and reporters used the old practice of the FOIA or Freedom of Information Act to obtain detailed information from the government or CDC on the demographics and whereabouts of the individuals tested. This inquiry turned out to be " the most comprehensive look at coronavirus cases across the country to the point .The report also confirmed that Black and Latino people were indeed bearing the worst of the pandemic."(https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/insider/freedom-of-information-covid.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap).

What it lead to?

Many months after this information was available to the news and then the public the CDC numbers would track these numbers for more open views of the data. You can see in the following link, that the rise of cases corelated with the number of Hispanic and African American Americans https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographicsovertime. Many other agencies and businesses used this time and opportunity as a window of opportunity to collect data and to advocate against the racial injustice. https://youtu.be/t7i8JG7r3co

The US National Library of Medicine conducted a nationwide cohort study that evaluated the number of deaths and infected related to the underprivileged and minority groups. Their report found that Hispanic and Black individuals faced a higher burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection than most groups. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7508372/) Other business like CREW, look to sue agencies like the CDC for "records on their methods of collecting demographic data"(https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-action/lawsuits/cdc-coronavirus-racial-data/).

What we can do?

It's no secret now that there is a mid spread amount of racial disparity in the United States and with the data collected for the Coranvirus but now the data is available updated and relevant. So, where can we go from here? We have to use resources lie the FOIA to request for information from agencies that hold vital information that could be detrimental in the survival of many lives. It's up to us hold these agencies, business and government offices liable for the information that should be readily available to us https://www.justice.gov/oip/guidance-agency-foia-administration-light-covid-19-impacts).