Health affairs
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More than 40 percent of all reported coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) deaths in the United States have occurred in nursing homes. As a result, health care workers' access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection control policies in nursing homes have received increased attention. ⋯ Health care worker unions were associated with a 1.29-percentage-point reduction in mortality, which represents a 30 percent relative decrease in the COVID-19 mortality rate compared with facilities without these unions. Unions were also associated with greater access to PPE, one mechanism that may link unions to lower COVID-19 mortality rates.
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This study aimed to understand racial/ethnic differences in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) screening, symptom presentation, hospitalization, and mortality, using data from 31,549 adults tested for COVID-19 between March 1 and July 10, 2020, in Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin. Racial/ethnic differences existed in adults who screened positive for COVID-19 (4.5 percent of non-Hispanic Whites, 14.9 percent of non-Hispanic Blacks, and 14.8 percent of Hispanics). After adjustment for demographics and comorbidities, Blacks and Hispanics were more than three times more likely to screen positive and two times more likely to be hospitalized relative to Whites, and Hispanics were two times more likely to die than Whites. Given the long-standing history of structural racism, residential segregation, and social risk in the US and their role as contributors to poor health, we propose and discuss the part these issues play as explanatory factors for our findings.