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CDC
And Kaiser Data On COVID-19 Vaccination Show Nation Falling Short In
Achieving Equity Goals
Making sure that populations most at risk from COVID-19
cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are vaccinated first and receive a
larger share of available vaccine has been a clearly articulated
concern and goal from the earliest days of the pandemic. It is now a
clearly stated goal of the Biden administration which has created a
COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
It has also been clear
that achieving such preferential vaccination would not be easy since
several of the most vulnerable populations, including African
Americans, Hispanic, and American Indian populations are among the
most distrustful of government and the most reluctant to be
vaccinated.
New Reports
Now two extensive
reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and
the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) conclude that racial
disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations are emerging and, according to
CDC, “equity in access to COVID-19 vaccination has not been achieved
nationwide.”
CDC has just announced
a plan to invest 2.25 billion dollars over two years to address
COVID-19 related health disparities and advance health equity among
populations that are at high-risk and underserved, including racial
and ethnic minority groups and rural populations.
MMWR
CDC findings were
published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 17,
2021. The agency examined over 49 million first doses of COVID
vaccination where county of residence was available. Vaccination
coverage was 1.9% percentage points higher in counties classified as
having a low social vulnerability index compared to counties
with a high social vulnerability (15.8% vs 13.9%). At the state
level, only Arizona and Montana actually had higher vaccination
coverage in high vulnerability counties for all elements of the social
vulnerability index used by CDC. Three other states Alaska, Minnesota,
and West Virginia also scored well. Vaccination disparities in in one
or more of the composite elements of the social vulnerability measure
were found in 31 states.
The Vulnerability
Index
The indicators making
up the vulnerability index resulted in four themes including
socioeconomic status, household composition and disability status,
racial/ethnic minority status and language, and housing type and
transportation. The theme most associated with percentage differences
was socioeconomic status, and within this category the most
influential socioeconomic indicator was the percentage of adults
without a high school diploma.
Kaiser
In the Kaiser data
collected from 44 states which report data on race/ethnicity and COVID
vaccinations, several states showed that Black and Hispanic persons
received smaller shares of vaccinations compared to their shares of
cases and deaths and compared to their shares of the total population.
KFF cited as examples California where 21% of vaccinations have gone
to Hispanic people while Hispanics account for 55% of cases, 46% of
deaths, and 40% of the total population. In another example, similar
disparities were found for African Americans in the District of
Columbia. States that have smaller shares of Hispanic and African
American populations tended to have smaller differences, according to
KFF.
In 39 states with
available data, KFF found that overall the vaccination rate among
white people was over twice as high as the rate for Hispanic people
( 19% vs 9%) and nearly twice as high as the rate for Black people
(19% vs 11%). The size of these differences varies widely across
states. As positive news, the relative differences in the overall
totals across reporting states has narrowed since March 1, says
Kaiser.
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