France’s data collection rules obscure the racial disparities of Covid-19

France’s data collection rules obscure the racial disparities of Covid-19

In the UK, preliminary data shows that nonwhite people have a 10-to-50% higher risk (pdf, p. 45) of death from the disease. In France, though, nobody knows. The country’s fraught relationship with the collection of statistics based on race or ethnicity means that health authorities are largely in the dark about whether Covid-19 is killing communities of color at higher rates or not.