Why aren’t more men getting the COVID-19 vaccine?
A man took his adult children to receive COVID-19 vaccinations over the weekend, knowing it was important for them to be immunized against the disease.
But he didn’t feel concerned about his own risk of catching the virus, despite the fact that older people and men are more likely to die from COVID-19, Barbara Ferrer, L.A. County’s public health director, said this week. He had not made plans to get vaccinated.
“I was worried about him, and so were his children,” said Ferrer, who encountered the family at a Los Angeles vaccination site. “What’s staggering to realize is that the very group of folks who have the higher mortality rate are now also the group of folks that have the lower vaccination rates.”
Throughout the pandemic, men worldwide have been far more likely to die from COVID-19 — because of a mix of biological and behavioral factors — but also less likely to have been vaccinated against the disease.
The data from L.A. County paints a troubling picture: Here, 153 of every 100,000 women have died from COVID19, while 289 of every 100,000 men have.
But while 44% of women in L.A. County have received at least one dose of a vaccine, only 30% of men have.
And in the 38 states that have published a gender breakdown of vaccination rates, more women have been vaccinated than men in all of them, according to Kaiser Health News.
The disparity is in part because vaccinations were initially offered to healthcare workers and the elderly, groups that are disproportionately composed of women. But it also likely reflects longstanding patterns of men engaging in riskier behavior and paying less attention to their health than women, experts say.
“Unfortunately, it’s not terribly surprising to see that there’s gender differences in uptake for vaccinations,” said UC Riverside medical sociologist Richard Carpiano.
Ferrer said the health department would focus on targeting vaccine messaging at men and improving access to the vaccine.