Coronavirus: University of B.C. professor deplores lack of ethnic data - Filipino

WEB - Philippine Canadian News  - National, 08/05/2020 - EDITORIAL, English

Summary: Ted Alcuitas - A community advocacy group is calling for ethnic data collection to fight the coronavirus. A University of British Columbia professor and a community advocacy group is calling for the collection of ethnic and racial data as part of a program to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. J.P. Catungal, a professor at UBC’s Social Justice Institute and RJ Aquino of Tulayan Filipino Diaspora Society claims lack of racial and ethnic data limits BC’s COVID-19 response. In a virtual press conference on April 30, Catungal and Aquino urged the B.C. government to collect data on race and ethnicity to determine whether some communities are being disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Filipino-Canadians are over-represented in essential industries such as health care, long-term care, and food service. “In terms of hospitalization, who is being admitted? Who is dying or recovering? Are there differences in terms of severity that are affected by race and ethnicity?” Catungal asks. Pre-existing conditions or access to care may be factors, he said, but health officials need to be informed by race- and ethnicity-based data. Health experts say governments need to commit to collecting this data because, otherwise, it’s difficult to glean a full picture of how minority communities are being impacted. Catungal cited New York and Louisiana as among U.S. jurisdictions that already collect data.

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