Closing the gap
Racial inequities among coronavirus vaccination rates will slow Connecticut’s recovery. Here’s how we can fix that.
The statistics don’t lie: Week after week, Connecticut residents getting vaccinated against COVID-19 are overwhelmingly white and from the state’s wealthy suburbs. If we are going to get everyone back to work, back to school and back to healthy lives — equitably, fairly — we need to step up our game right now for Black and brown residents in Hartford, Bridgeport, New Britain and across the state.
According to national data compiled by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, Connecticut is among the nation’s leaders in statewide vaccination, yet we are at the back of the pack when it comes to vaccinations for people of color.
The Kaiser Family Foundation reports Black residents are 10% of the Connecticut population, but have received only 6% of the vaccinations, as of April. Hispanic residents are 17% of the population, but had received only 11%. The numbers for white residents are starkly different: White residents make up 66% of the Connecticut population, according to Kaiser, but had received 71% of the vaccinations. These numbers are more disturbing when we take into account that Black and brown people, and city dwellers, are at higher risk — living in more crowded areas, working in front-line jobs — and more likely to have existing health issues that can make COVID-19 far more dangerous.
Two important caveats: Connecticut is in fact a national leader in getting its residents vaccinated overall — which deserves praise — and the state has been closing the gap between white and BIPOC residents in small increments over the past few weeks.
Still, we need to do better.
Thankfully, it is a challenge that we are working to address. We have found that by going door-to-door and visiting homes that Black and brown residents are willing to listen, willing to trust, and willing to get the vaccine — particularly when messages are delivered by those they know, and by medical professionals with experience and trust in our communities. And that is borne out nationally.
Just last month, a poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed more and more Black Americans want to get vaccinated: While 41% of Black American adults said they were unlikely to get vaccinated in January, 17% had changed their minds and wanted the shot by the end of March.
This means education is working — and it means we need more outreach. But most of all — we need more access to the vaccines. Members of the Black and brown community report feeling relieved and healthy after receiving the shot. We need to help spread that message.
Some steps we have found that work: Ensuring that vaccine is available in close proximity and at flexible times to accommodate varied work, parenting and home schedules.
Increasing funding to community health workers across the state who go door-to-door, create public service announcements, and get information to the places where Black and brown families and individuals will see it.
Sharing materials from trusted sources, that say the vaccine is safe and effective — and offer practical information: Here is where you go, here is when you go, and here is how the vaccine system works.
Social service organizations, churches and nonprofits that work in the community need resources to translate information into appropriate languages, to hold forums in churches and community centers, to place public service announcements on websites and local radio stations. For example, we know where and how to reach people in Bridgewater and Hartford — we simply need the resources to support a continuous and aggressive outreach, and pair that outreach and education with the address of the nearby clinic where people can get the shot.
We have received funding from the Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundations to provide this kind of support and help reach more people in more communities. We need resources to help organizations that serve communities of color and support for a systemic response to the challenges we face. The success of vaccinating the Black and brown population across Connecticut will be an important measure of the true effectiveness of the state’s vaccination efforts.