Murray: Stalled Progress Indicated By Trump Administration’s Latest Demographic Data Report is Unacceptable
Updated report shows stalled progress in collecting demographic data
Report shows small increase in cases reporting racial data, small decrease in cases reporting ethnic data, and no change in cases reporting both
Senator Murray: “While this virus is still surging, the Trump Administration’s efforts on testing, tracing, and tracking the data we need to address disparities are stalling.”
CDC report on demographic data: “… further progress in reaching improved completeness is needed, as improvements have stabilized since late June.”
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement in response to the latest report on testing and demographic data associated with COVID-19 which the Trump Administration submitted to Congress yesterday as required by the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act.
“While this virus is still surging, the Trump Administration’s efforts on testing, tracing, and tracking the data we need to address disparities are stalling. It’s inexcusable that over half a year after this pandemic began, we still have a woefully incomplete picture when it comes to how health disparities are hurting Black, Latino, and Tribal communities, as well as other communities of color. We may have come a long way from the Administration’s first, embarrassing, four-page report, but given how far we still have to go, the lack of progress in this latest report is simply unacceptable,” said Senator Murray.
The report, the third such update since the initial report was submitted back in May, only has data on race for 60 percent of cases—an increase from 54 percent in the previous report—and data on ethnicity for only 50 percent of case—a decrease from 52 percent previously. The overall percentage of cases with data on both race and ethnicity remained unchanged from the previous report at 48 percent.
The report itself acknowledged that, “further progress in reaching improved completeness is needed, as improvements have stabilized since late June.”
The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act required the Trump Administration to submit to Congress a report on COVID-19 testing that includes available “data on demographic characteristics, including, in a de-identified and disaggregated manner, race, ethnicity, age, sex, geographic region and other relevant factors of individuals tested for or diagnosed with COVID–19,” and “information on the number and rates of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as a result of COVID–19.” It also required the Administration to update this report every 30 days.
See Senator Murray’s response to the first demographic data report HERE.
See Senator Murray’s response to the first 30 day update to the report HERE.
Seen Senator Murray’s response to the second 30 day update to the report HERE.
See the latest full report update from CDC HERE.
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