Immigration Status, Housing, and Food-Service Work Explain Covid-19’s Burden on Latinos

August 27, 2020

(STAT News) – A new analysis of one state’s Covid-19 data lays bare some of the reasons behind the disproportionate burden of Covid-19 infections on people of color, pinpointing in particular factors that heightened risks for Latino residents. Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health tallied confirmed Covid-19 cases in all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns and determined that the biggest predictor of infection was being a recent immigrant to the U.S., followed by living in a household with a large number of people and working in the food-service industry. But that was true only for Latinos, not Black people.