Vulnerability, Infection, and Anti-discrimination Among Asian Americans and COVID-19: Explorations into Race and Health Intersections in California

The purpose of this chapter is to report and analyze the double victimization among Asians/Asian Americans during COVID-19, including their vulnerability to infection and anti-Asian racism. We first test the validity of the CDC’s SVI (Social Vulnerability Index) in analyzing COVID-19 infections, then construct an Asian-specific Social Vulnerability Index (ASVI) to compare with the CDC SVI, mapping them out nationally to visualize the differential geographical patterns. We then conduct an empirical study of the state of California with correlation analysis, analysis of variance, and GIS mapping to explore the association of ASVI with Asian COVID-19 infection incidence rate, and anti-Asian discrimination incidents. We conclude that the method of constructing ASVI may be applied to other vulnerable groups. The findings contribute to our knowledge of the unequal social outcomes of pandemics across people and place. The chapter ends with summarizing findings and contributions, revealing data limitations, providing policy suggestions and suggesting future research directions.