OCC team publishes Racial/Ethnic Disparities in the Observed COVID-19 Case Fatality Rate Among the U.S. Population. The purpose of this study was to examine racial/ethnic differences in COVID-19 case fatality rates (CFRs) at the U.S. national level during the first year of the pandemic. We used data from The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project (CTP), whose Racial Data Tracker was widely regarded as the most complete source of information on race/ethnicity of COVID-19 cases and deaths during this period.
CFR by month and racial/ethnic group with CTP and CDC datasets
We performed a parallel analysis using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Case Surveillance Public Use data—an independently compiled and regularly updated individual-level data source. Although less complete than the CTP data, the CDC data contain information on age. Adjusting for age is critical to get an accurate understanding of differences in COVID-19 CFR. We focused on the two largest minority groups, Blacks/African Americans and Latinx, and their comparison to Whites, since these categories are reported most completely by a large number of states and territories, and permit approximate comparability between the two datasets.