Murray: Trump Administration’s Latest Demographic Data Report ‘Incomplete’ and ‘Inadequate’

Trump Administration’s updated report on COVID-19 demographic data remains incomplete and still falls short of what Congress required

Report shows that race and ethnicity data is still missing in over half of COVID-19 case reports

Report fails to include data on sex and geographic regions

Administration’s previous submission was a four-page copy and paste project

Murray: “This Administration needs to change gears now and start doing everything it can to address the reality that Black communities and other communities of color are disproportionately hurt by this pandemic.”

(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 updated report on testing and demographic data associated with COVID-19 the Trump Administration submitted to Congress recently as required by the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act.

““The Trump Administration set the bar appallingly low with its last demographic data report which was a 4-page copy and paste project, so while this couldn’t help but be a step up, it is still inadequate to the task at hand. This incomplete report shows we’re still missing race and ethnicity data for over half of COVID-19 case reports, and it still fails to include data on sex and geographic regions like Congress required. This Administration needs to change gears now and start doing everything it can to address the reality that Black communities and other communities of color are disproportionately hurt by this pandemic.”

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 first 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 the full report update from CDC HERE.

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