Disparities in COVID-19 Rates Among Various Demographics and Lack of Racial Representation in Medical Texts

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China in December of 2019, has impacted nations all over the globe. Given the health disparities which existed within the United States prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this pandemic continued to pose a significant challenge to the health of the public. The aims of this research study were twofold: (1) to analyze the incidence rates of COVID-19 among different racial and ethnic groups within the United States and (2) to describe the occurrence of diversity within medical texts. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated health disparities within the United States. Understanding the magnitude of these disparities and the potential impact of medical education in reducing them is critical in improving the health of the general population. This study sought to achieve two research aims related to the complex intersectionality between race and disease outcomes. The data presented in this study shows that there is a statistically significant difference between incidence rates of COVID-19 and various racial and ethnic groups within the United States (Research Aim 1). While no statistical analyses were able to be conducted for research Aim 2, the preliminary data shows a stark difference in word choice used to represent dark-skinned population versus light-skinned populations. Frankly, these data show an overall disappointing inadequacy in the representation of diverse populations expected from an increasingly diverse nation