Pennsylvania launches task force to address coronavirus outbreaks among minorities

The governor’s office on Wednesday announced a new task force aimed at analyzing and addressing disproportionate coronavirus outbreaks in minority communities across Pennsylvania.

The goal of the Covid-19 Response Task Force for Health Disparity is to identify disparities and make recommendations to Gov. Tom Wolf on how to address the consequences immediately and in the future as recovery begins.

“We know of instances in Pennsylvania where major covid-19 outbreaks have occurred in vulnerable communities, including ones where people do not speak English,” Wolf said.

He said state officials are hoping to get better data on who has the virus and how it is affecting different groups.

The announcement comes a day after Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine lamented the lack of racial data being reported to the state by health care providers when they report a positive covid-19 test.

Demographic data — including race and ethnicity — are required data points, she said, and it is missing from 70% of reports sent in by health care providers.

“We need to gather this information for a complete picture of how the virus is affecting black or African-American, Hispanic and other vulnerable communities,” she said.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week shows that one-third of all covid-19 patients who are ill enough to require hospitalization are black, though African-Americans make up only 13% of the country’s population.

Of the hospitalized patients included in the CDC study, 45% were white.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams addressed the disparity during a coronavirus briefing Friday, pointing to racial disparities in health care — and society in general — as possible reasons for the coronavirus-related differences.

“The chronic burden of medical ills is likely to make people of color, especially, less resilient to the ravages of covid-19. And it is possibly, in fact, likely that the burden of social ills is likely contributing,” Adams said, noting that many African Americans and Hispanics do not have the types of jobs that allow them to telework or remain at home.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman will head the task force along with directors from the state’s five commissions that represent minorities: the Commission on African-American Affairs, Commission on Asian-Pacific Islander Affairs, Commission on Latino Affairs, Commission for Women and the Commission on LGBTQ Affairs.

Representatives from the Department of Health’s Health Equity Response team will also be part of the task force, which will hold meetings each week and reach out to leaders in minority communities.

Fetterman called it “unconscionable” for minorities to be hit harder by the pandemic, which he said has “highlighted the systemwide inequity that already existed in these communities.”

“We need to reach into these communities and create a line of communication straight to the governor, so we can stop the spread of covid-19,” Fetterman said.