A racial gap has opened up in the country’s COVID-19 vaccination process, with black Americans in many places lagging behind whites in receiving shots, according to an Associated Press analysis.
A first look at the 17 states and two cities that have launched racial breakdowns through Jan. 25 found that black people everywhere were inoculated at levels below their general population share, in some cases significantly inferior.
This is true, even though they constitute a large percentage of the nation’s health workers, who were put at the helm of the line when they began the campaign in mid-December.
For example, in North Carolina, blacks make up 22% of the population and 26% of the health workforce, but only 11% of vaccine recipients so far. Whites, a category in which the state includes both Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites, make up 68% of the population and 82% of those vaccinated.
The gap is deeply troubling for some, as the coronavirus has had a disproportionate weight in the serious illness and death of blacks in the U.S., where the scourge has killed more than 430,000 Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans die from COVID-19 nearly three times as much as whites.
“We will see an expansion and exacerbation of the racial health inequalities that existed before the pandemic and that worsened during the pandemic if our communities cannot access the vaccine,” said Dr. Uché Blackstock, emergency physician of New York and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, a advocacy group that addresses bias and inequality.
Experts say several factors could drive the emerging disparity, including a deep mistrust in medical establishment among black Americans because of a history of discriminatory treatment; inadequate access to the vaccine in black neighborhoods; and a digital divide that can make it difficult to obtain crucial information. Vaccination records are being made largely online.
“It’s frustrating and challenging,” said Dr. Michelle Fiscus, who runs Tennessee’s vaccination program, which doubles the doses sent to some heavily affected rural counties but finds deep-seated mistrust among some of the blacks in Tennessee. Tennessee.
“We have to work very hard to rebuild that trust and vaccinate these people,” Fiscus said. “They die. They are hospitalized. “
Hispanics also lagged behind in vaccinations, but their levels were slightly closer to expectations in most places studied. Hispanics, on average, are younger than other Americans and vaccines have not yet been opened to young people.
However, several states where Hispanic communities were especially affected by COVID-19 have not yet reported data, most notably California and New York.
President Joe Biden is trying to bring more equity to the vaccine launch he inherited from the Trump administration. The Biden administration encourages states to map and target vulnerable neighborhoods using tools such as the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, which incorporates data on race, poverty, crowded housing, and other factors.
“We will take additional steps to reach the hardest to reach people, and this work is happening right now,” said Dr. Marcella Núñez-Smith, chair of Biden’s COVID-19 equity working group.
Most states have not yet released any racial data on who has been vaccinated. Even in states that provided breakdowns, the data is often incomplete, with many records missing details about the race. However, the missing information would not be enough to change the big picture in most cases.
Data came from Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as two cities, Philadelphia. and Chicago.
AP analysis found that whites are vaccinated at levels closer to or higher than expected in most states examined.
Initially, health care workers and residents of nursing homes generally had priority for shootings in the U.S.
In the past two weeks, many states have opened eligibility to a wider group of seniors and more front-line workers, which could further depress the relative proportion of vaccinated black people. The nation’s over-65 population is whiter than the rest of the ages.
Among the conclusions:
– In Maryland, blacks make up 30% of the population and 40% of the healthcare industry, but only 16% of people have been vaccinated so far. Whites, who in the state data include Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites, make up 55% of the population and 67% of those who have been shot. Hispanic or Latino of any race are 11% of the population and 5% of vaccine recipients.
– In Philadelphia, blacks make up 40% of the population, but only 14% of people vaccinated in the city so far. Hispanics make up 15% of the population and 4% of vaccine recipients.
– In Chicago, blacks make up 30% of the population, but only 15% of those vaccinated. With Hispanics, the numbers are 29% versus 17%.
Vaccine capture has been slower and more affected than expected. Many Americans of all races have had trouble getting shots because supply is limited. In general, approximately 7% of Americans have received at least one dose. But there are other issues that hold back vaccination among black Americans and other groups, experts said.
Some black neighborhoods do not have anyone registered to fire.
“What we’ve heard over and over again: A lot of black people want to get it from their doctor or their local clinic because that’s where the trust lies,” said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, a Mississippi health worker.
Louisiana uses the CDC tool to locate vulnerable neighborhoods without vaccination sites and then recruits new vaccinators in those neighborhoods, said Dr. Joseph Kanter, a state health officer.
Other strategies in place in some states: provide transportation so people can get to their appointments and reach people at home through mobile vaccination units.
To address the mistrust, Thomas LaVeist, dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, is recruiting notable black Americans to help promote vaccination. The campaign, called “The Skin You’re In,” has produced a video of New Orleans hip-hop artist Big Freedia playfully demonstrating how to wear a mask.
While LaVeist credits the Trump administration for supporting vaccine development, he said calling the Operation Warp Speed project a “disastrous” option because it seemed to emphasize speed, not careful scientific review.
“I completely understand the mistrust,” said LaVeist, who received his first shot on Monday. “But you have to take into account the risk of COVID versus the risk of the vaccine. This is a devastating disease and has disproportionately affected black Americans. That’s what we know. “
Because of fears of deportation, there is also mistrust among Latinos that is reducing vaccination capacity, as well as a language barrier in many cases, according to activists.
Many black Americans and other people of color are taking steps to make sure their communities receive the vaccine, including Detroit health worker Sameerah Singletary, who is expected to get a shot soon.
More than 1,700 residents in the country’s largest black-majority city have died of the virus, including some of Singletary’s friends and her godmother. However, he knows many who reject the vaccine.
“I think there’s such a collective trauma in blacks, even in Detroit, that a lot of people have nothing left,” Singletary said. “They’ve been so traumatized that they don’t care because the virus was just one more layer.”
But he added: “I feel we need to be involved in our healing.”