Murray on Trump Administration’s New Demographic Data Report: “We Still Aren’t Even Close to Having the Full Picture”

Earlier this week, the Trump Administration provided Congressionally required 30-day update to COVID-19 demographic data report

Latest report is still missing race or ethnicity data in more than half of COVID-19 case reports

Senator Murray: “It’s unacceptable that two months after the Trump Administration submitted its first wholly inadequate report on demographic disparities, we still aren’t even close to having the full picture.”

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement in response to the latest report on testing and demographic data associated with COVID-19 which the Trump Administration submitted to Congress earlier this week as required by the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. The latest report only has data on race for 54 percent of cases and ethnicity for 52 percent of cases. 48 percent of reports include complete information on both race and ethnicity.

“It’s unacceptable that two months after the Trump Administration submitted its first wholly inadequate report on demographic disparities, we still aren’t even close to having the full picture. While we are seeing slow progress in getting more of this urgently needed data, this crisis is quickly getting worse—and we need more than incremental improvements. I’m going to keep pushing the Trump Administration for the comprehensive data we need to shine a light on health disparities and address the ways this crisis is disproportionately impacting communities of color.”

The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act required the Trump Administration to submit to Congress a report on COVID-19 testing that includes available “data on demographic characteristics, including, in a de-identified and disaggregated manner, race, ethnicity, age, sex, geographic region and other relevant factors of individuals tested for or diagnosed with COVID–19,” and “information on the number and rates of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as a result of COVID–19.” It also required the Administration to update this report every 30 days.

The latest report is the second update since the Administration submitted its initial report which was a four-page document that merely provided a list of links to existing, already public, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web pages that include limited data on testing and demographic characteristics.

See Senator Murray’s response to the first demographic data report HERE.

See Senator Murray’s response to the first 30 day update to the report HERE.

See the latest full report update from CDC HERE.

###