Making the Invisible Visible: The Role of Public Health Critical Race Praxis in Data Disaggregation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the challenges in gathering case and mortality data by race and ethnicity, especially for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). The typical response would be to gather and disaggregate data among AAPI people. However, to what purpose does data disaggregation serve outside of describing disparities? We argue that collection of data both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic should be framed within principles of equity and justice, ideas put forth by Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP). Applying a PHCRP framework to data collection and disaggregation allows for researchers and policy makers to approach pandemic data collection and future data collection with both equity and community partnership in mind.