The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be disproportionately impacting communities of color, according to limited national data that has been released. Though racial data of COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts is scarce, recently released data from the City of Boston revealed higher infection rates in African American and Latino residents than whites.
Dr. Sandro Galea, the dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, said that the current data is limited and does not show a disproportionate burden on communities of color, though he expects that to change once more becomes available.
“What we do have does not show a disproportionate burden of coronavirus on people of color at the moment, but one would expect that we are going to see that because other states have consistently shown that,” Galea said.”