Page - 405 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

405Spread of Anti-Asian Racism: Prevention and Critical Race Analysis in Pandemic Planning While the government is starting to acknowledge how the spread of a novel virus can differentially affect racialized persons by gathering data during the pandemic,50 in the long term, what we con- sider to be health-relevant data should include race and immigration profiles.51 Further, Canada should be creating permanent residence programs for essential foreign workers. As well, pandemic plans must address racist misinformation by anticipating and actively reacting to public discourse. Most of all, while public health officials should rec- ognize that an outbreak will be accompanied with fear, our responses should not be driven by fear. 50. Johanna Weidner, “Ontario Will Soon Gather Race, Income-Related COVID Data”, The Record (7 May 2020), online: <www.therecord.com/news/waterloo- region/2020/05/07/ontario-will-soon-gather-race-income-related-covid-data. html>. 51. Aimée-Angélique Bouka & Yolande Bouka, “Over the Long Term, Canada Should Collect Better Health Data that Looks Closely at the Intersecting Issues of Race and Immigration”, Policy  Options (19 May 2020), online: <poli- cyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/canadas-covid-19-blind-spots- on-race-immigration-and-labour/>.