In the seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic, good data have yet to emerge showing how many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have contracted or died from the disease and how the group's death rate compares to those of other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.

For instance, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the rates of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths among Asian Americans are similar to those of whites.

Data from the American Public Media Research Lab similarlyshow that Asian Americans, along with whites, have the lowest Covid-19 death rates in the country.

The study found that through July, "excess deaths" among Asian Americans — the number of deaths above the average for a particular time period, which many use to estimate deaths from Covid-19 — have increased by 35 percent, the biggest increase among racial groups after Hispanic Americans.

One report highlights that Asian Americans account for almost half of Covid-19 deaths in San Francisco.

Jeffrey Caballero, executive director of the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, said the high mortality rates are one indicator.

In Hawaii's Pacific Islander community, a strong stigma is attached to having Covid-19, which compounds the discrimination it faces, said Tina Tauasosi, community partnership and research specialist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Petersen said one of the reasons is that testing positive for Covid-19 compounds the discrimination and judgment that Pacific Islander public housing residents face.

While experts and community leaders are able to draw some conclusions about the impact of Covid-19 on the AAPI community based on existing data, they say more disaggregation is needed to answer important questions.

"When you're talking about Asian Americans and their vulnerability to Covid-19, how much of it is Filipinos versus Vietnamese and different stories that would emerge based on those populations?" asked Ramakrishnan, of AAPI Data.

Kaholokula also said the lumping of data for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, or NHPIs, with those of Asian Americans masks inequities.