Studying the social determinants of COVID-19 in a data vacuum

PWP-CCPR-2020-001

Abstract

The Canadian government has no plans to release data on the race or socioeconomic status of COVID-19 patients. Therefore, whether COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting certain socio-demographic groups in Canada is unknown. We fill this data void by merging publicly available COVID-19 data with tabular census data to identify risk factors rendering certain geographic areas more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections and deaths. We combine insights obtained from this analysis with information on the socio-demographic profiles of smaller geographic units to predict and display the incidence of COVID-19 infections and deaths in these locales. Like in the U.S., COVID-19 has disproportionately affected black and immigrant communities in Canada. COVID-19 death tolls are also higher in Canadian communities with higher shares of older adults.