Center in the News List
Statewide, a survey conducted by AAPI Data and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research shows that about one-third of Asians who reported difficulty accessing health care and mental health services cited limited language skills for a reason. Among those who are Chinese, the figure doubles for both categories.
Ninez Ponce and colleagues at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research received $161,000 for a study to address the gap in data for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities through the construction of a new measure to better indicate the needs of the state's NHPI population.
The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Data Policy Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles has collected and analyzed Covid-19 data from states that have made it available and found that case and death rates for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander were three times higher than those for Asians overall. "Our community has had the highest case and death rates than any other racial or ethnic group," program director 'Alisi Tulua said, and that gap has "widened by a lot" since this winter.
“We still have growing death rates and case rates. How can we move forward in the pandemic when we’re still suffering?” said Karla Thomas, policy director for the UCLA Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander COVID-19 Data Policy Lab.
Throughout the pandemic, Pacific Islanders have been hit the hardest by COVID-19. Their mortality rate is nearly twice that of the statewide rate and nearly six times higher than the lowest rate of 2.5 deaths per 100,000 people among those who identify as multi-racial.