Since the beginning of the pandemic, the media, governments and public health authorities have released a tidal wave of data about the spread of the disease, the rates at which the virus is spreading, who is most affected, the number of hospitalizations, and the overall death toll. To the chagrin of many health care professionals, much of what we've heard over the past 20 months has been challenged or denied, most often along ideological lines. Part of the reason for this chaos is the fact that the federal government in 2020 did not produce reliable statistics as states were tasked with the collection of the data. Tracking and recording data disaggregated by gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status, is crucial in all fields - health, education, public policy, real estate, etc. - in order to create more equitable solutions and opportunities. On this podcast episode, Code Switch discusses the importance of tracking reliable, disaggregated data in order to understand how the virus has impacted different racial groups, and how we can use this data to translate it to future improvement in healthcare. Listen to the podcast here!