South Cook News

South Cook County Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL) agrees with several other Democratic lawmakers in a call for racial data pertaining to COVID-19, according to VDARE.

Kelly signed a letter written by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) asking Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to provide demographic data on those who have been tested or treated for the novel coronavirus. Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) also signed the letter.

The lawmakers believe that areas with high black and Hispanic populations have become recent COVID-19 hot spots and that the information could help address the spread of the virus.

"Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole," the news agency reported the letter stating.

Lawmakers believe that the lack of information will result in many more deaths in vulnerable communities and that racism preventing people of color from access to health care, financial security and affordable housing has caused coronavirus to have a huge impact in those communities.

"We need the government to step up in a big way to ensure that communities of color have equal access to free testing and treatment," VDARE reports the letter states. "Congresswoman Pressley and I aren’t going to let up until we see solid data and real progress."

The lawmakers write that because people of color are less likely to have health insurance, they have been left to distrust the medical system and are less likely to seek care in a timely fashion. The letter also notes that people of color have a higher rate of the diseases identified as risk factors for COVID-19 complications, such as asthma and diabetes.