In July 2022, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) https://oig.hhs.gov published the report “CDC Found Ways to Use Data to Understand and Address COVID-19 Health Disparities, Despite Challenges With Existing Data.”
OIG did this review since the COVID-19 pandemic devastated communities across the U.S and as a result, socially vulnerable populations have been disproportionately affected. Reports have indicated that people of color and people from economically disadvantaged communities were at increased risk of getting COVID and needing intensive care.
At the same time reports revealed that demographic data on COVID-19 was sometimes missing, inconsistent, inaccurate, or incomplete. In examining the situation, OIG found that CDC’s https://www.cdc.gov racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic data for COVID-19 testing, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths provided an incomplete picture of COVID disparities.
CDC has taken steps to supplement and improve the data. CDC analyzed disparities using additional data sources, such as ED data on COVID like illnesses and qualitative data from ad hoc surveys on attitudes and beliefs.
CDC reports using both supplemental data and data on COVID testing, cases, hospitalizations and deaths to address disparities via technical assistance to partners, targeted interventions, and significant funding investments. CDC has also reported that they have elevated health equity throughout their response efforts.
The Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TEC) and Territory, were interviewed by OIG, when it was also noted that data limitations could inhibit their ability to identify and address COVID disparities.
The 12 TECs function as public health entities for AI/AN Tribal and urban Indian communities. TECS work in partnership with Tribes and monitor data, provide disease surveillance, and promote public health, but they do not report public health data to CDC.
The problem as described by the TECs interviewed by OIG, reported difficulty accessing public health data from CDC and the States, while the Territory interviewed reported that they lacked the technical infrastructure to collect and report COVID data.
In summary, OIG recommends that CDC:
- Expand efforts to both improve racial and ethnic data associated with COVID and supplement the data with additional data sources
- Ensure that TECs have timely access to all public health data.
CDC has concurred with both of these recommendations.
Go to https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/OEI-05-20-00540.pdf for the July 2022 Report “CDC Found Ways To Use Data to Understand and Address COVID-19 Health Disparities, Despite Challenges with Existing Data.”