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Fan tubes will be attached to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Los Angeles ward of Los Angeles on November 19, 2020. Jae C. Hong / AP Photo
LGBTQ + Americans were particularly hard hit during the pandemic, as exorbitant unemployment rates left thousands without insurance or stable incomes.
According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, LGBTQ + people are also at higher risk of developing serious cases of COVID-19 if they do become infected.
The report used data from the 2017-2019 Surveillance Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which collected information from 645,000 adults across the United States.
The results found that adults who identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual were more likely to report underlying conditions that make COVID-19 more dangerous than people who are straight.
Read more: The alarming ways in which the pandemic harms America’s foreign workers
The report measured 11 conditions: asthma, cerebrovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, hypertension, immune deficiency condition, neurological conditions, thalassemia, obesity, smoking, diabetes and cancer.
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In all racial and ethnic groups, strangers reported a higher percentage of these conditions than ordinary people.
However, it is important to recognize that due to the self-reported nature of the study, it is difficult to quantify the frequency of a person smoking, the level of obesity and the severe asthma of the person.
Queer and transgender people have less access to medical care, which can calculate the high underlying conditions
Before the pandemic, queer people in the US had less access to health care than ordinary people due to medical discrimination and workplace discrimination.
A report by the Human Rights Campaign found that 17% of LGBTQ + adults had no form of insurance before the pandemic. Without insurance, many foreign adults had the necessary doctor appointments needed to keep conditions such as asthma and hypertension at bay.
The pandemic only exacerbated these health disparities.
According to a report by Human Rights Campaign and PSB Research, 17% of LGBTQ + adults were discharged during the pandemic. This left thousands of people with no access to insurance or income to pay for medical care to treat underlying conditions that could make COVID-19 more dangerous.
“The responses to COVID-19 taken by the government, policymakers and the private sector must actively take into account the unique situations of LGBTQ + individuals in their plans to address this crisis,” the Human Rights Campaign said. said in a report on the status of LGBTQ + people. in the pandemic.
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