Magnifying the importance of collecting race, ethnicity, industry, and occupation data during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The contagiousness of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) led to the imposition of historical lockdowns in various countries. No scientific mind could have made accurate projections of the tremendous impact that COVID-19 would have on nations, communities, and the global-wide economy. Meanwhile, millions of workers have lost their jobs, while healthcare workers are overwhelmed and are reaching a state of mental and physical exhaustion. With the uncontrollable spread, researchers have been working to identify factors associated with COVID-19. In this regard, race, ethnicity, industry, and occupation have been found to be predominant factors of interest. However, unfortunately, the unavailability of such information has been a difficult reality. Since race, ethnicity, and employment are essential social determinants of health and could serve as potential risk-factors for COVID-19, collecting such information may offer important context for prioritising vulnerable groups. Thus, this perspective aims to highlight the importance and need for collecting race, ethnicity, and occupation-related data to track and treat the racial/ethnic groups that have been most strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Collecting such data will provide valuable insights and help public health officials recognise workplace-related outbreaks and evaluate the odds of various ethnic groups and professions contracting COVID-19.

Evaluating COVID-19 Risk to Essential Workers by Occupational Group: A Case Study in Massachusetts

“…Occupation data are not consistently collected during disease surveillance activities, including for COVID-19 [ 19 ], so there remain gaps in understanding which workers experienced elevated risk, especially of COVID-19 infection (as opposed to hospitalization or death). Some analyses have considered essential workers as a homogenous group [ 20 – 22 ], while others have found differences in specific occupational risk factors for mortality [ 14 , 16 , 17 ] and hospitalization [ 17 , 18 ].…”