1, 2021 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report noted that to date 60.4 percent of vaccine recipients were White and 39.6 percent were people of color. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Feb. Though data is limited and race and ethnicity are widely underreported, preliminary data does show racial disparities. 8, 2021, less than 3 percent of the US population had been vaccinated with both doses to date. Preliminary data highlights vaccine disparities:Īs of Feb. Recently, the Biden Administration announced it will begin shipping an additional 1 million vaccine doses each week to thousands of pharmacies across the country in an effort to improve equity and increase access to the vaccine. These steps help achieve equity by identifying underserved communities, sending them extra vaccine supplies, improving public trust in the vaccine, and ensuring individuals are able to get vaccinated. The Biden Administration’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response emphasizes equity in vaccine distribution to “protect those most at risk and advance equity, including across racial/ethnic and rural/urban lines.” This includes increasing data collection and reporting for high-risk groups, supporting communities most at risk of COVID-19, and ensuring equitable access to critical COVID-19 personal protective equipment, tests, therapies, and vaccines. However, early data suggests that these populations are receiving vaccines at lower rates than White Americans.Īs President Biden highlights his administration’s commitment to equity, officials from a cross section of states told the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) how they are working to simultaneously build and strengthen systems to track and address disparities in COVID-19 vaccine administration. At the county level, the vaccination-rate gap between the counties Biden and Trump won has increased nearly six-fold from 2.2% in April to 12.9% in mid-September, according to KFF.As states rapidly work to get COVID-19 vaccines into arms as quickly as possible as viral variants spread, state officials know vaccine rollout plans must focus on equitable distribution to communities of color, especially Black and Latinx communities that have experienced disproportionately high infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths. Of the 29 states below the national average, Donald Trump carried 24. Of the 21 states with vaccination rates above the national average, Joe Biden carried 20 last November. These national divergences are reflected at the state and county level as well, per data from Johns Hopkins University. In response to a more sharply worded KFF question, 23% of Republicans report that they will “definitely not” get vaccinated, compared to 11% of Independents and just 4% of Democrats. According to Gallup, 40% of Republicans “don’t plan” to get vaccinated, versus 26% of Independents and just 3% of Democrats. There is no reason to believe that these gaps in vaccination rates will disappear anytime soon. Along party lines, however, the breakdown was 92% of Democrats, 68% of Independents, and 56% of Republicans. As of mid-September, 75% of adult Americans have been vaccinated, including 73% of non-Hispanic white adults and 78% of non-whites. Contrast these converging figures with disparities based on politics: 90% of Democrats had been vaccinated, compared with 68% of Independents and just 58% of Republicans.Ī Gallup survey released on Sept. 13-22, 72% of adults 18 and older had been vaccinated, including 71% of white Americans, 70% of Black Americans, and 73% of Hispanics.
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