A national panel is pledging to work with California officials on addressing the lack of data about how COVID-19 is impacting the LGBTQ community.
The Public Health Work Group oversees what are known as Health Level Seven International (HL7) standards that provide guidance on the collection of certain patient characteristics, such as racial and ethnic data. But they do not include sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data, which has hampered efforts in California and other states to collect health information about LGBTQ people in order to better address what is ailing them.
The issue has taken on greater import over the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the lack of SOGI data on people testing positive for the novel coronavirus has made it impossible to know how widespread infections have been in the LGBTQ community or how many LGBTQ Americans have been killed by the virus. Many LGBTQ people have underlying health issues that make them more susceptible to COVID-19 or work in front-line industries that place them at higher risk of contracting the virus.