I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1370 
To require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect and 
report certain data concerning COVID–19. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 25, 2021 
Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. BASS, Ms. KELLY of 
Illinois, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. OCASIO-COR-
TEZ, Mr. EVANS, Ms. TLAIB, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. MENG, Ms. 
BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. MFUME, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. CLARKE 
of New York, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. JAYAPAL, and Mrs. 
DEMINGS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on 
Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
to collect and report certain data concerning COVID–19. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Equitable Data Collec-
tion and Disclosure on COVID–19 Act of 2021’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The World Health Organization (WHO) de-
clared COVID–19 a ‘‘Public Health Emergency of 
International Concern’’ on January 30, 2020. By 
late January 2021, there have been over 22,000,000 
confirmed cases of, and 383,351 deaths associated 
with, COVID–19 in the United States. 
(2) From the beginning of this pandemic, 
Black, Brown, and American Indian/Alaska Native 
(in this section referred to as ‘‘AI/AN’’) people in 
the United States have suffered the largest burden 
of illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID– 
19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC) reports that AI/AN people are 4 times as 
likely as White people to be hospitalized for COVID– 
19, and that Black and Hispanic/Latino people are 
2.8 times as likely to die of COVID–19 as White 
people. 
(3) Historically, structures and systems such as 
racism, ableism, and class oppression have rendered 
affected Black and Brown communities more vulner-
able to inequities and have prevented people from 
achieving optimal health even when there is not a 
crisis of pandemic proportions, highlighting that rac-
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ism and not race presents as a risk factor driving 
inequities in illness and death. 
(4) Significant differences in access to health 
care, specifically to primary health care providers, 
health care information, and greater perceived dis-
crimination in health care place Black, Brown, and 
AI/AN communities, individuals with disabilities, 
and Limited English Proficient individuals at great-
er risk of receiving delayed, and perhaps poorer, 
health care. 
(5) Stark racial inequities across the United 
States, including unequal access to stable housing, 
quality education, and decent employment, signifi-
cantly impact the ability of Black, Hispanic/Latinx, 
and AI/AN individuals to take care of their most 
basic health needs. Black and Brown communities 
are more likely to experience homelessness and 
struggle with low-paying jobs or unemployment. An 
analysis by the University of New Hampshire found 
that in every month between March and August 
2020, Black and Latino workers had significantly 
higher unemployment rates than White workers, 
even after adjusting for age and education status. 
(6) Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and AI/AN commu-
nities experience higher rates of chronic disease and 
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disabilities, such as diabetes, hypertension, and asth-
ma, than non-Hispanic White communities, which 
predisposes them to greater risk of complications 
and mortality should they contract COVID–19. 
(7) Research experts recognize that there are 
underlying differences in illness and death when 
each of these factors is examined through socio-
economic and racial or ethnic lenses. These socially 
determinant factors of health accelerate disease and 
degradation. 
(8) Language barriers are highly correlated 
with medication noncompliance and inconsistent en-
gagement with health systems. Without language ac-
cessibility data and research around COVID–19, 
communities with limited English proficiency are 
less likely to receive critical testing and preventive 
health services. Yet, to date, the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention does not disseminate 
COVID–19 messaging in critical languages, includ-
ing Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Korean within 
the same timeframe as information in English de-
spite requirements to ensure limited English pro-
ficient populations are not discriminated against 
under title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 
subsequent laws and Federal policies. 
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(9) Further, it is critical to disaggregate data 
further by ancestry to address disparities among 
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Is-
lander groups. According to the National Equity 
Atlas, while 13 percent of the Asian population over-
all lived in poverty in 2015, 39 percent of Burmese 
people, 29 percent of Hmong people, and 21 percent 
of Pacific Islanders lived in poverty. 
(10) Utilizing disaggregation of enrollment in 
Affordable Care Act-sponsored health insurance, the 
Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum 
found that prior to the passage of the Patient Pro-
tection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111– 
148), Korean Americans had a high uninsured rate 
of 23 percent, compared to just 12 percent for all 
Asian Americans. Developing targeted outreach ef-
forts assisted 1,000,000 people and resulted in a 56 
percent decrease in the uninsured among the Asian, 
Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander population. 
Such efforts show that disaggregated data is essen-
tial to public health mobilizations efforts. 
(11) Without clear understanding of how 
COVID–19 impacts marginalized racial and ethnic 
communities, there will be exacerbated risk of en-
dangering the most historically vulnerable of our 
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Nation. A recent national study found that Amer-
ican Indian/Alaska Natives were 3.5 times more like-
ly to be infected with COVID–19, however that data 
excluded 27 States as they had reported less than 70 
percent of race/ethnicity data to the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention making it impossible to 
include them in the analysis thus creating a signifi-
cant data gap for understanding the impact of 
COVID–19 on this vulnerable population. 
(12) The consequences of misunderstanding the 
racial and ethnic impact of COVID–19 expound be-
yond communities of color such that it would impact 
all. 
(13) Race and ethnicity are valuable research 
and practice variables when used and interpreted ap-
propriately. Health data collected on patients by 
race and ethnicity will boost and more efficiently di-
rect critical resources and inform risk communica-
tion development in languages and at appropriate 
health literacy levels, which resonate with historically 
vulnerable communities of color. 
(14) To date, race and ethnicity data on 
COVID–19 cases, test, hospitalizations, deaths, and 
vaccinations is incomplete and lacking. The incon-
sistency of data collection by Federal, State, and 
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local health authorities poses a threat to analysis 
and synthesis of the pandemic impact on Black, His-
panic/Latinx, and AI/AN communities. However, re-
search and medical experts of Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges and 
Universities, academic health care institutions which 
are historically and geographically embedded in 
minoritized and marginalized communities, generally 
also possess rapport with the communities they 
serve. They are well-positioned, as trusted thought 
leaders and health care service providers, to collect 
data and conduct research toward creating holistic 
solutions to remedy the inequitable impact of this 
and future public health crises. 
(15) Well-designed, ethically sound research 
aligns with the goals of medicine, addresses ques-
tions relevant to the population among whom the 
study will be carried out, balances the potential for 
benefit against the potential for harm, employs 
study designs that will yield scientifically valid and 
significant data, and generates useful knowledge. 
(16) The dearth of racially and ethnically 
disaggregated data reflecting the health of Black, 
Hispanic/Latinx, and AI/AN communities underlies 
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the challenges of a fully informed public health re-
sponse. 
(17) Without collecting race and ethnicity data 
associated with COVID–19 vaccinations, testing, 
hospitalizations, morbidities, and mortalities, as well 
as publicly disclosing it, Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and 
AI/AN communities will remain at greater risk of 
disease and death. 
SEC. 3. EMERGENCY FUNDING FOR FEDERAL DATA COL-
LECTION ON THE RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND 
OTHER 
DEMOGRAPHIC 
DISPARITIES 
OF 
COVID–19. 
To conduct or support data collection on the racial, 
ethnic, and other demographic implications of COVID–19 
in the United States and its territories, including support 
to assist in the capacity building for State and local public 
health departments to collect and transmit racial, ethnic, 
and other demographic data to the relevant Department 
of Health and Human Services agencies, there is author-
ized to be appropriated— 
(1) to the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention, $12,000,000; 
(2) to State and territorial public health agen-
cies, distributed proportionally based on the total 
population of their residents who are enrolled in 
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Medicaid or who have no health insurance, 
$15,000,000; 
(3) to the Indian Health Service, Indian Tribes 
and Tribal organizations (as defined in section 4 of 
the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assist-
ance Act), and urban Indian organizations (as de-
fined in section 4 of the Indian Health Care Im-
provement Act), $3,000,000; 
(4) to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 
Services, $5,000,000; 
(5) to the Food and Drug Administration, 
$5,000,000; 
(6) to the Agency for Healthcare Research and 
Quality, $5,000,000; and 
(7) to the Office of the National Coordinator 
for Health Information Technology, $5,000,000. 
SEC. 4. COVID–19 DATA COLLECTION AND DISCLOSURE. 
(a) DATA COLLECTION.—The Secretary of Health 
and Human Services (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec-
retary’’), acting through the Director of the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of 
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, shall make 
publicly available on the website of the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention data collected across all surveil-
lance systems relating to COVID–19, disaggregated by 
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race, ethnicity, sex, age, primary language, socioeconomic 
status, disability status, and county, including the fol-
lowing: 
(1) Data related to all COVID–19 testing, in-
cluding the number of individuals tested and the 
number of tests that were positive. 
(2) Data related to treatment for COVID–19, 
including hospitalizations and intensive care unit ad-
missions. 
(3) Data related to COVID–19 outcomes, in-
cluding total fatalities and case fatality rates (ex-
pressed as the proportion of individuals who were in-
fected with COVID–19 and died from the virus). 
(4) Data related to COVID–19 vaccinations, in-
cluding— 
(A) the number of vaccines administered; 
(B) the number of vaccinations offered, ac-
cepted, and refused; 
(C) the most common reasons for refusal; 
and 
(D) the percentage of vaccine doses allo-
cated and administered to each priority group. 
(b) APPLICATION OF STANDARDS.—To the extent 
practicable, data collection under this section shall follow 
standards developed by the Department of Health and 
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