Data: The Great Orator of The Pandemic Is Missing

Race and ethnicity data is missing for nearly half of all coronavirus vaccine across the country, further thwarting efforts to ensure an equitable response to a pandemic that continues to unfairly burden communities of color. Quantification is the orator who provides the narration of our COVID-19 pandemic. Numbers determine the existence of the problem and affect our ability to care and contribute to relief efforts.

Yet, many of our Latino communities are virtually absent from this number-based narration of the pandemic. Therefore, we must address two types of data gaps. The first gap concerns the data poverty that persists in low-income neighborhoods, jeopardizing their ability to adequately respond to the pandemic. The second affects vulnerable populations within various contexts, whereby data poverty constitutes a dangerous form of invisibility that perpetuates multiple forms of inequality. Nevertheless, we are confident that if we all work together, we can change the narrative by empowering each other to build co-designed innovative solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of their invisibility.

S urveys have found an “element of fear and mistrust” about the vaccine, but such fears manifest differently across different Latino subgroups, according to a Brookings Institution analysis published Monday.

A t least 28 percent of all Latinos surveyed by the Latino advocacy nonprofit UnidosUS in October reported that they were unlikely to get vaccinated for Covid-19. Latinos of Puerto Rican and Mexican origins were the most likely to report they would not get vaccinated, overwhelmingly citing concerns over potential negative long-term health effects and side effects from the vaccine, according to disaggregated data from the UnidosUS survey.