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When vaccines became increasingly available across America, US health officials quickly intervened to try to convince large numbers of Americans to get vaccinated. But amid the mass vaccination rollout, black and Latino communities, who are disproportionately affected by the pandemic, have been left behind in vaccination efforts, creating racial disparities over who was most likely to be affected. get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Amid federal and local efforts to tackle vaccine disparities, vaccination rates of black Americans and Latinos lag behind the general population, leaving many communities of color still unprotected from the Covid pandemic. 19.
Of the 57% of Americans for whom ethnicity data were available and who received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the majority are white while only about 15% are Hispanic and 9% are black: two rates lower than their proportion of the US population. Less than half of U.S. states have vaccinated more than a third of their black populations, according to data provided by Bloomberg, while more than 40 states have done at least as well with whites and Asians.
While some states, such as Mississippi, Georgia, and Maryland, have seen sharp increases in vaccination rates among black and Latino residents over the past week, most states in the United States are still lagging behind in vaccination of communities of color.
The reasons for persistent disparities in vaccine distribution are complex, ranging from a decreasing reluctance to get vaccinated to disparities in public health infrastructure that disproportionately impact communities of color. Amidst various explanations and steady progress towards closing the immunization equity gap, the disparity persists.
“We have structural inequalities in everything else, especially in health care. You don’t expect a thing like vaccinations [make] that are disappearing, ”said Dr. Linda Rae Murray, a Chicago physician and former president of the American Public Health Association (APHA).
In many states, the initial trial and error of the immunization process has left persistent disparities. Missteps in providing accessible information about Covid-19 vaccines, combined with a constant level of distrust of institutions, have created copious amounts of misinformation about the efficacy and safety of vaccines, resulting in some hesitation, especially at the start of the vaccination rollout.
“We still have people who still haven’t heard the information they need to make an informed decision and we still have a range of misinformation and we still have people who deliberately give people the wrong information,” said Georges C Benjamin. , Director General of APHA.
But reluctance to get vaccinated is just one reason many blacks and Latinos go unvaccinated. Kaiser Family Foundation polls found that reluctance to get vaccinated among black Americans has declined in recent months, while interest in vaccination among Latinos has remained high. In fact, white Republicans are more likely to permanently refuse a vaccination. Likewise, although black Americans have similar rates of hesitation to whites, whites are more likely to get the vaccine.
Beyond individual attitudes, structural inequalities stifle equitable access to vaccines.
Transportation to and from vaccination sites has been a constant problem for many people trying to get vaccinated. Many low-income people of color do not have access to a car or live near public transport that could take them to vaccination sites.
Work and family obligations are another obstacle that makes it difficult for some to access the vaccine. In the early days of the vaccination rush, although a person could overcome the technological challenges of securing a long-sought vaccination appointment, getting the vaccine often depended on a person’s availability during the day.
For many frontline workers, the majority of whom are people of color, taking time off to get vaccinated is still not possible. Likewise, caring for young children or elderly parents can limit a person’s chances of going for the vaccine.
“All of these structural conditions… make it difficult to exit to these mass vaccination sites,” Murray said.
Some communities of color also struggle with a lack of health infrastructure, resulting in limited access to information about the vaccine or how to schedule vaccine doses.
In many major US cities, including Chicago, Memphis and Los Angeles, the “drugstore deserts,” a term used to describe a neighborhood with limited access to pharmacies, have a disproportionate impact on black and Latino residents, cutting l ” access to appointments for vaccines in commercial pharmacies. Likewise, since blacks and Latinos are less likely to have insurance, they may have irregular contact with a doctor who can provide more information on how to get vaccinated.
Some states and municipalities have taken targeted steps to make the immunization process accessible. Benjamin noted proposals such as door-to-door meetings to create vaccine appointments, mobile vaccination clinics, and other attempts to create parity between vaccine distribution in many states. New federal initiatives to increase vaccination rates among minorities also include the use of black-owned barbershops and hair salons as pop-up vaccination sites and to promote vaccinations as well as the provision of free Uber rides and Lyft to Covid-19 vaccination sites.
“It is important to bring the vaccine to the community and not to let the community [have] to come to the vaccine, ”said Benjamin.
Benjamin also described how the federal government has plans in place to help achieve a more equitable distribution. “We have states in the United States that historically score badly on all health statistics. They’re at the bottom of our health scores for heart disease, cancer. They have high poverty rates. It will take longer to get them, ”said Benjamin.
But as Murray noted, in the absence of any U.S. national health care system, states, even those that have historically performed poorly on minority health or those that still struggle to accurately collect vaccine data on minorities, are responsible for closing the vaccine disparity gap.
Additionally, interim proposals to increase immunization rates, especially with the impending July 4 deadline, are temporary solutions to structural problems – such as a lack of pharmacies in a community – that create and exacerbate vaccine disparities. . Using Covid-19 emergency funding to fund short-term proposals versus sustainable investment in public health infrastructure typically leaves structural inequalities unaddressed in the long term.
“It’s like saying, ‘We’re going to hire a few more fire departments for next year, but if you don’t have a fire department in five years and there’s a fire, you still have problems, ”says Murray.
Ultimately, despite some gains in immunization rates among communities of color, more work needs to be done – now and in the future – to adequately address vaccine-related and health inequalities. of the.
“There will be another [pandemic] and it won’t be 100 years from now. It will be sooner than that and if we don’t make these investments in our infrastructure now, if we don’t address the racial inequalities that exist in our country… then the next pandemic will see the same kinds of inequities, ”Murray said. .
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