CDC is asked to release race and gender data on Long Covid

Lawmakers say minorities may disproportionately suffer from long-term symptoms of coronavirus infection.

A pair of Democratic House members asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a letter Tuesday to release data on the number of Americans who suffer lingering symptoms of coronavirus infection, including breakdowns along race, gender and age.

The National Institutes of Health and the CDC have launched detailed studies of Long Covid, but those examinations are expected to take years. In the meantime, policymakers lack good information about how many people in the United States and worldwide suffer from long-term, debilitating effects of the disease.

“People suffering from Long Covid have been ignored and overlooked for far too long. Collecting and publishing robust, disaggregated demographic data will help us better understand this illness and ensure that we are targeting lifesaving resources to those who need them most,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who co-signed the letter Tuesday to the CDC.“We’re calling on the CDC to publicly report this data because that which gets measured gets done — and we can’t have an equitable recovery from this pandemic without it.”

Read full story

Source: The Washington Post, 25 January 2022