In the seven months since the pandemic has raged on in the US, there has been a lack of sufficient data on how COVID-19 has directly affected the AAPI community. Particularly statistics on the number of people who contracted or died from the disease and how it compares to other ethnic groups in the US. Ideally, every country in the world is supposed to collect data categorized by race in order to understand how the virus is affecting each community. At the moment, different institutes have reported facts that do not add up – some have stated that the AAPI community is the race with the lowest death rates, while others state that they have the highest death rate.
One plausible reason for the lack of data is the under testing in the community. The recent surge in hate crimes against Asians has led to stigmatization, making Asian-Americans more reluctant to get tested. Many mixed-status families also hesitate to use their public benefits and seek medical care because they think it could affect their immigration status, although the government has stated that it would not. There is an urgent need for better and more accurate collection of data about how COVID-19 affects the AAPI community.