Giving Compass' Take:

• The Othering & Belonging Institute released a map visualizing racial disparities in Covid-19 to highlight state-by-state variations. 

• How is your state doing when it comes to racial disparities in COVID-19? What role can you take to close the gap for people of color? 

• Read about prioritizing racial equity in the COVID-19 crisis.

A new interactive “heat map” released May 11 shows how different states across the country are experiencing disparities in infection and death rates by race, which may offer clues in how state-level policies and underlying vulnerabilities of a region could be impacting populations differently.

The map, developed by the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, allows users to toggle between one version showing infection rates, and another version showing death rates, with each state assigned a color based on the level of disparity between any one racial group and that state’s general population.

The map uses data collected by the COVID Tracking Project, which reveals that in almost all cases, Black and Hispanic populations are being infected and dying at significantly higher rates than the general population.

So far the limited data available on Covid-19 infection and death rates by race makes it difficult to draw conclusions from a comparative analysis between states. Racial data is missing for many states, and the states that are reporting racial data may be reporting incomplete figures, and using inconsistent measures.

But based on this limited data, the top three states that appear to be experiencing the worst disparities in death rates include Kansas, Michigan, and Louisiana. When measuring infection rate, the most disparate states are South Dakota, New Mexico, and Rhode Island.

Read the full article about visualizing racial disparities at Othering & Belonging Institute.