In a March 25 article from Pro Publica, Jessica Justman, MD, ICAP’s senior technical director, says providing detailed geographical information on COVID-19 hotspots may increase the risk of bias attacks and stigma against Asian Americans:

But some of those same factors, particularly ethnicity and race, may account for the city’s reluctance to make public more localized data that could point to clusters in particular neighborhoods, among certain communities. Around the country, there have been disturbing reports of bias attacks against Asian Americans by assailants blaming Chinese communities for the spread of the virus.

 

“The risk is that certain communities would be unfairly stigmatized, especially if communities with many COVID-19 cases already shoulder poverty or high crime,” said Dr. Jessica Justman, associate professor of medicine in epidemiology at Columbia University. “On the other hand, communication and information are always important and especially important in a pandemic setting.”

Read the full article on Pro Publica

Read the latest ICAP updates on COVID-19 here