Measuring Infection and Mortality of COVID-19 among Arab-Americans

COVID-19 has had differential effects across ethnicity and race in the United States. Though there is anecdotal evidence that the pandemic has hit Arab-American communities hard, there is limited data documenting infection and mortality rates specifically for these communities. Rather, Arab-Americans are generally included in the “White” racial category for most publicly available data. I argue that this is masking the true impact of the pandemic on Arab-American communities given that these groups may be both more exposed to infection and have higher morbidity. I combine data on COVID infection and mortality at the county level with ACS data on the geographic distribution of Arab-Americans. I find that infection and mortality rates for the “White” racial category are significantly higher in neighborhoods with higher Arab-American population shares, even after controlling for socio-economic factors. This suggests that infection and mortality rates are indeed higher for Arab-American communities than for Whites of European descent. I then explore potential explanations for this result and argue that underlying health conditions are the leading cause. This finding highlights the specific need for increased intervention in Arab-American communities. It also suggests that the observed racial gaps in COVID infection/mortality rates are likely being underestimated given that these numbers for the White category are being inflated by the inclusion of Arab-Americans.