Recent data shows the mortality rate for Latinos in Los Angeles County rose by 48 percent during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is more than any other ethnic group, from 2019 to 2021.
By contrast, the mortality rate increases from 2019 to 2021 for other groups in Los Angeles were 23 percent for Black people, 22 percent for Asians and 7 percent for whites.
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Latinos saw a 42 percent increase in mortality from 2019 to 2020, and 70 percent of excess deaths were attributable to the virus.
"The reality is that it's not a surprise," Dr. Ilan Shapiro, medical affairs officer and chief medical correspondent for AltaMed, a Latino health care provider based in Southern California, said.
For decades, Latinos have experienced social determinants of health such as environmental pollution, food insecurity and chronic diseases, among others, that have created the "perfect storm" during the pandemic, said Shapiro, a Mexican American physician who has been involved in Latino health outreach, including nationally and in Mexico.
Latinos account for almost half of the county's population, at 48.6 percent, according to U.S. census data.
"The [Latino] community is made out of essential workers, and we have a very diverse workforce," Shapiro said. "But if you put that on top of what's happening, a lot of our family members don't have even insurance. They cannot afford it, or they can't get it."
Hispanics have the highest uninsured rates of any ethnic group in the country, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health. In 2019, 50.1 percent of Hispanics had private insurance coverage, compared to 74.7 percent of non-Hispanic whites, the report said.
"It wasn't two years; it's a reflection of decades of problems, social determinants of health," Shapiro said. He thinks it's important to create a health structure "where everybody's represented."
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