Members of the LGBT community are at greater risk of experiencing severe symptoms of COVID-19, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.
According to the report, the CDC found that members of the LGBT community are more likely to have underlying health conditions that are at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus and experiencing severe symptoms of the disease.
The report uses data from the 2017-2019 Behavioral Risk Factors Security System, a collection of health surveys that collects demographic and health-related information from non-instructed U.S. residents older than 18 to determine health disparities.
“When age, sex, and survey year are adjusted, persons with sexual minorities have a higher incidence than heterosexuals with cancer, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease (including myocardial infarction, angina, or coronary heart disease), heart disease, obesity, smoking, diabetes, asthma, hypertension and stroke, ”reads the report.
The report adds that racial and ethnic minority groups who are also members of the LGBT community are at increased risk of experiencing severe coronavirus symptoms compared to their heterosexual counterparts. In addition, members of the LGBT community are more likely to experience discrimination and stigmatization that may increase their risk of illness and limit their access to proper health care, according to the agency.
“Persons who are members of both sexual minority and racial / ethnic minority groups may therefore experience a confluence of clear social, economic and environmental benefits that increase chronic disease differences and increase the risk of adverse COVID-19 related outcomes,” the report concluded. .
Since the early stages of the pandemic, the CDC has stated that those with underlying health conditions, including older adults and immunocompromised, are at greater risk of experiencing worse symptoms and even death due to coronavirus.
The agency also released data stating that Americans of color are up to nearly three times more likely than white Americans to die from the coronavirus.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the country’s largest LGBT rights organization, released data in 2020 that reflects these findings of the CDC.
The report released by the organization states that members of the LGBT community are at greater risk of contracting the disease due to a number of factors, such as high-exposure jobs to COVID-19, a wealth gap and lack of health coverage.
“This report confirms what LGBTQ advocates and organizations know throughout: that our community is at greater risk and is being unduly affected by the COVID-19 health crisis,” said HRC President Alphonso David. ‘It is critical that health disparities in marginalized communities are fully captured through government data collection so that they can be addressed quickly. ”
The authors of the CDC’s Thursday report stated that the current “COVID-19 surveillance systems” do not capture information about sexual orientation, and called for more information to be gathered about the LGBT community and the coronavirus.