This needs an answer. Perhaps Stuart Hurlbert is best suited to answer this piece from his perspective in the biological sciences.
Monday, August 11, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
Racial initiative ignites medical worries/Researchers fear Prop. 54 will hinder collection of data
Ulysses Torassa, Chronicle Health Writer
Researchers are sounding alarms over the potential health effects of Proposition 54 — the initiative to ban state government from collecting racial or ethnic data — fearing it will jeopardize efforts to pinpoint cancer hot spots, keep tabs on disease outbreaks and fashion effective health messages.
Although the measure contains an exemption for “medical research subjects and patients,” dozens of prominent health officials and organizations have now lined up against it, saying the wording doesn’t protect wide swaths of data now used to track important health issues.