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Ventilation tubes are placed on a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles on November 19, 2020. Jae C. Hong / AP Photo
LGBTQ + Americans were hit particularly hard during the pandemic, as disproportionate unemployment rates left thousands without insurance or stable income.
According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, LGBTQ + people also face an increased risk of developing serious cases of COVID-19 if they become infected.
The report used data from the 2017-2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which collected information from 645,000 adults in the United States.
The results found that adults identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual were more likely to report underlying conditions that make COVID-19 more dangerous than heterosexual people.
Read More: The alarming ways the pandemic is affecting queer workers in America
The report measured 11 conditions: asthma, cerebrovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, hypertension, immunocompromised status, neurological conditions, thalassemia, obesity, smoking, diabetes and cancer.
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In all racial and ethnic groups, queer people reported higher rates of these conditions than heterosexual people.
However, it is important to recognize that, due to the self-reported nature of the study, it is difficult to quantify the frequency of a person smoking, a person’s level of obesity and the severity of their asthma.
Queer and trans people have less access to medical care, which may be responsible for the high rates of underlying diseases
Before the pandemic, queer people in the U.S. had less access to health than heterosexuals because of medical and workplace discrimination.
A report from the Human Rights Campaign also found that 17% of LGBTQ + adults had no insurance before the pandemic. Without insurance, many queer adults went without the necessary medical consultations to prevent conditions such as asthma and hypertension from remaining uncontrolled.
The pandemic has only made these health disparities worse.
According to a report by the Human Rights Campaign and PSB Research, 17% of LGBTQ + adults were fired during the pandemic. This left thousands of people without access to insurance or income to pay for medical care to treat underlying diseases that could make COVID-19 more dangerous.
“Responses to COVID-19 taken by government, lawmakers and the private sector must actively consider the unique situations of LGBTQ + people in their plans to address this crisis,” said the Human Rights Campaign in a report on the status of LGBTQ + people in the pandemic.
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