We need to know more about vaccine rollout
Latinos, African Americans and other minorities are way behind getting the COVID-19 vaccine and that’s just terrible.
Of those who have gotten the vaccine so far, only 11.5% are Latinos and 5.4% are African Americans , compared to 60.4% whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Unfortunately, that disparity is too predictable, but that doesn’t make it right. Latinos and African Americans are hardest hit with coronavirus infections in part because they’ve been on the frontlines of the pandemic.
Equally disturbing is the fact that only a handful of states have publicly released race and ethnicity vaccination data. That means most states are not tracking it or not sending it to the CDC — or both.
In the first month of the vaccine rollout, some 12.9 million people, or 4% of the U.S. population, got at least one dose. Health care workers were first prioritized but some states like Florida and Texas quickly expanded the vaccination to others, the CDC says.
The data available show that white women account for the majority of those vaccinated. But then again, data are limited since most states aren’t tracking vaccinations by demographics or are simply not reporting it.
“As of Jan. 30, we’re missing 47% of race and ethnicity data on vaccinations,” said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who’s leading the White House COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. “Let me be clear: We cannot ensure an equitable vaccination program without data to guide us.”
That has to change.
Arizona, for instance, allocates the vaccine through local and tribal health jurisdictions by priority phases. It reports total vaccines ordered and administered by county, but there is no breakdown by race and ethnicity.
I’d also be instructive to know ZIP code information since we know will have to get out into neighborhoods to get some populations vaccinated.
Why is that important? COVID-19 is now a leading killer in America, and the only way to make it less deadly or less severe is to get vaccinated.
Vaccine doses are still limited, so prioritizing representative populations makes sense. But keeping track of who exactly is getting vaccinated and where they are is essential if we want to achieve herd immunity.
How else are we to know? Every state should be required to track detailed data and make it public. It’s important to know which communities are being left behind and why to allocate resources accordingly.
It’d be helpful to know, for instance, if the number of Latinos and African Americans getting vaccinated is dismal across the nation or just in some states. For now, the states that reported that kind of data provide a snapshot, but that’s just not good enough.
Health experts say racial and economic equity remains at the forefront of the COVID-19 vaccine conversation. African Americans, Latinos and low-income folks in general are less likely than whites to get the vaccine.
“Vaccine hesitancy is a real concern, but I worry that focus on vaccine hesitancy is a way to deflect responsibility for equitable distribution on the front end,” Anne Sosin, director of the Dartmouth Center for Global Health Equity, told Politico.
And that’s just it. The problem is twofold.
Those in charge of distributing the vaccine are clearly leaving African Americans and Latinos on their own. They aren’t tracking racial disparities. Messaging is key, especially when there is so much distrust in government and the vaccine itself.
It’s in everyone’s interest to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. COVID-19 has already infected more than 26.3 million and killed 443,000 in the United States.
African Americans and Latinos remain on the frontlines of the pandemic, and if they don’t get vaccinated at the same rate as the rest of population, the country won’t get back on track.