Numbers Speak: A conversation with CESLAC Director Dr. David Hayes-Bautista

Dr. David E. Hayes-Bautista

Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture (CESLAC) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

As Covid-19 continues to affect Latinos far more seriously than it has non-Latino populations one man keeps a close watch, gathers numbers and deciphers the human stories behind the statistics.

“Look at the data, that’s always my suggestion.” Says Dr. David Hayes-Bautlista, a recognized professor and researcher who has spent 40 years working to improve public understanding of Latinos and their health, history, culture, and contributions to California and the nation. Focusing on where his findings lead him and trusting the conclusions, he is methodically building a new narrative about where Latinos stand today, the contributions of this community, and why it is key to invest in this segment in the future.

You have been studying the health of Latinos for decades, what is your most relevant discovery? I am fascinated by the enduring strength of Latino health which I describe in the Latino Epidemiological Paradox. Latinos across the nation have less income, less education, less access to health care and yet we have nationally 30% lower mortality for heart disease, 35% lower cancer mortality, 25% stroke mortality 60% lower respiratory disease, a 30% lower cause of death rate compared to non Hispanic whites with the the one exception of diabetes. We have a 3½- year-longer life expectancy. So it is a very puzzling and fascinating discovery that Latinos are healthier than the rest of the population despite having fewer resources.

What are you focusing on regarding your research of Latinos and Covid-19? One of the key factors was determining why Latinos have higher infection and fatality rates, at first everyone thought that pre-existing conditions was the main reason, but through research we quickly realized that it is the types of jobs that Latinos hold, and that keep America running, that is the real underlying condition.

As an example farmworkers are putting themselves at risk every day. They have to work in large crews, shoulder to shoulder, they travel in crowded buses, they share housing with multiple families, there is no work from home option… and so with more exposure coupled with less access to healthcare, because most employers do not offer insurance, Latino essential workers have had higher case rates, and now have higher death rates.

In addition we are not providing the essential equipment that they need. And this is paramount because their contribution is critical, perhaps even more so than physicians because we all depend 100% on the food chain continuing to operate. Do you remember the first month of the lockdown when people were fighting for toilet paper? Well if it weren't for Latino farmworkers we would be fighting for the last sack of potatoes, and this would be a very serious situation.

You state that Latino health has a direct impact on the economy, why is that? Nobody seems to understand the value that Latinos add to the United States, so I wanted to find a metric to prove that if it were not for Latinos the labor force would be shrinking which would deeply impact the economy.

It will come as a surprise to many that the 60 million US Latinos have created the eighth-largest economy in the world. We have been the force behind the GDP by setting up new businesses and establishing new households, and the U.S. Latino GDP is currently the most productive sector for a strong overall U.S. GDP growth and has the potential to power the nation’s economy out of the pandemic. But every working-age Latino who dies due to COVID-19 is one less contributor to the country’s economic future. The narrative should lean towards investing in the health of this segment, and not towards building walls. Any business leader would understand this.

What are the characteristics that drive this growth in the Latino GDP? Hard work, strong families, self-sufficiency, business friendliness, healthy behaviors, patriotism: these values drove Latino adults during the 1990s and early 2000s to lay the foundations of a $2.6 trillion GDP by 2018. This is larger than the GDPs of Italy, Brazil, South Korea, or Russia.

Latino households have more wage- earners than non-Hispanic households. However, when they have to work more exposed to the coronavirus than white-collar workers, when they are paid very little for their hard work, when they are less likely to be offered health insurance, when they are less likely to find a doctor who can speak Spanish, it is no wonder that working-age Latinos have higher case rates and death rates than the general population.

As a recognized researcher, how do feel about the way data and information is handled now days? Unfortunately we are living in times when wearing a face mask or talking about the vaccine has become politicized, and we need to see through all of this polarization.

As a researcher I am a great believer in data. There is an agreement in science about the rules of the game, there is always a method you follow. And it is very different when you are outside the scientific community where misinformation floats around very freely. People say “I saw this on the web so it must be true.” If someone says something long enough and hard enough, they will eventually find other people to believe them, and this is very dangerous. There is access to unbiased information, and this is provided by organizations like the National Institute of Health or The American Medical Association, all of which make their data publicly available.

Science isn't perfect and we are always improving, but you need to arrive at a consensus about the facts; there will always be different opinions about how to best interpret and apply them, but this should always be your starting point.

What is one the main conclusions of your recent work? That as Latinos we are greatly undervalued and under appreciated. Even though we have been a force for economic growth since the very foundation of this country, we have consistently been the foreigner or the criminal and it's simply not true. We need to create our own narrative about ourselves. So my job which I love is to provide the data to straighten people out about Latinos.