The numbers

Federal data from mid-March, when individuals 55 and older were eligible to be vaccinated, show that 8% of the vaccines administered by the state’s FQHCs had gone into the arms of Black residents in the state. Twelve percent of vaccinations went to Hispanic residents. Those numbers were more similar to the state’s eligible population at the time than they were to the demographics of the ZIP codes served or the patient populations of Connecticut FQHCs — though those patient populations skew younger, making comparisons difficult. More recent data show potential improvement among Latino patients, though changes in how the data are reported make it difficult to compare March and April.

A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nationally, FQHC data showed a similar trend, where vaccine recipients resembled the demographics of populations statewide. “They seem to be doing a better job of vaccinating people of color relative to the national vaccination rates of people of color, and pretty consistent with their share of the population,” said Jennifer Tolbert, a researcher at KFF. But they could do more to reach patients of color, the study concluded.

Connecticut’s FQHCs have consistently lagged behind the national average in the percentage of vaccines administered to minority FQHC patient populations, though it is unclear how much that is a product of the state’s largely age-based rollout policy as opposed to challenges reaching