Non-black Latinos Spend More Time Outdoors and Have Lower COVID-19 Morbidity and Case Fatality Rates Than Non-Latinos

Abstract

African Americans have higher COVID-19 mortality rates than expected from population frequency. This effect increases with decreasing solar irradiance. Public health experts recently suggested Latinos’ morbidity is also higher, and that this is due to their inability to carry out social distancing at home and work. We tested this hypothesis by examining COVID-19 morbidity and confirmed case fatality rates (CFR) among white versus black Latinos, and among Latino and non-Latino whites, blacks, Asian and Native Americans in Georgia. The results showed people of Latino/Hispanic ethnicity exhibited significantly reduced rather than increased COVID-19 morbidity for all races but African American, and significantly reduced cCFR for all races. We show Latinos spend more time outdoors, consistent with a role of solar irradiance in COVID-19 prevention and treatment.

Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus, morbidity, mortality, confirmed case fatality rate, CCFR, Latino, Hispanic, Black, African American, race, ethnicity, irradiance, outdoors, sun