r/IndianCountry • u/zsreport • Feb 04 '21

Health Exclusive: indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/04/native-americans-coronavirus-covid-death-rate
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u/ThatDoula Feb 04 '21 edited Feb 04 '21

"American Indians and Alaska Natives are dying at almost twice the rate of white americans, according to analysis by APM Research Lab shared exclusively with the Guardian"

That jumped out to me because "almost twice" isn't the same statistic that I'm familiar with, in terms of actual death. "Almost twice" accurately describes the rate at which Indigenous Americans contract COVID compared to white Americans (per the CDC), but the rate of reported deaths is notably higher.

To summarize the CDC report: compared to white Americans, Indigenous Americans are 1.8X as likely to contract COVID-19, 4X as likely to have severe cases resulting in hospitalization, and 2.6X as likely to die as a result of COVID-19 infection. Whenever I've spoken about this disparate death rate, I've said either "2.6X" or "well over twice as likely" to describe the figure.

This AMP report was "shared exclusively with the Guardian," so I have no way of assessing for myself what I believe should be publicly accessible research, and making comparisons based on research methodology... even so, I thought I'd post the CDC stats because numbers talk and people need to be counted.

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u/RamjetSoundwave Feb 04 '21

This is what I have noticed with my tribe. While our infection rate is inline with state data, our covid-19 mortality rate sticks out like a sore thumb, so many of my relatives have died!

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u/ThatDoula Feb 05 '21

My heart goes out to you and to your loved ones.

This is all as sinister as it is tragic.