Respondents said they also did not intend to take the chance, or that they were unsure whether to take the chance, according to a new survey released Thursday by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
The survey found that only 49% of black adults plan to get the vaccine, while 19% of people say they will get it right away, and 31% prefer to wait.
Conversely, 31% of black adults say they will not get the vaccine and 20% say they are unsure.
The findings come because data from many states reveal that white people are vaccinated on average twice as fast as black people.
More than 20 states now report Covid-19 vaccination data by race or ethnicity, and there are inequalities in Covid-19 vaccination, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Black people received a smaller share of the vaccinations than their share of Covid-19 cases in all 23 who reported the data, and the same was true for Hispanics in all 21 states who reported the data.
In most of the states, black and Hispanic people also received a smaller share of Covid-19 vaccinations than their share of Covid-19 deaths, with Vermont and Missouri as exceptions. In Vermont, the proportion of vaccinations among black people was equal to the proportion of deaths in Covid-19 among black people, and in Vermont and Missouri, the proportion of vaccinations among Hispanics was higher than the proportion in Covid-19 deaths among Hispanics.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has been using data published on state websites since Monday for the analysis, along with cases and deaths from The COVID Tracking Project.
A CNN analysis of government vaccination data last week found that vaccine coverage is on average twice as high as among black and Hispanic people.
Older black adults and men are more willing to get vaccinated
“The findings of the survey highlight the need to build trust in vaccines and the health care system among black adults, among younger age groups and women, who often make health care decisions for their families,” said NFID president Dr. Patricia N. Whitley-Williams, said. said in a statement.
“Medical professionals and the healthcare system in general need to engage with black communities, address their concerns and convey the safety and importance of these vaccines in protecting against Covid-19 and influenza.”
The survey, conducted in December 2020, also revealed that older black adults and men are more willing to get the Covid-19 vaccine. 68% of the [delete] adults 60 years and older said they were planning to get the vaccine, while only 38% of black adults aged 18-44 were planning to get it. According to the survey findings, many of the younger respondents expressed distrust in the health care system, saying it treated people unfairly on the basis of race and ethnic background.
In addition, 59% of black women over 60 said they were willing to get the vaccine, compared to 78% of black men in the age group.
The survey found that almost half of black adults are also reluctant to get flu vaccine due to possible side effects and the belief that they will get flu from the shot. Thirty-five percent say they will not get the flu vaccine and 11% were unsure.
Renew calls to prioritize fair access
Although vaccine hesitation is a problem, health and civil rights advocates say the federal government does not prioritize fair access in color communities. They say the government needs to work with trusted leaders in the Black community to help build vaccine confidence and reach their neighborhoods.
The NFID survey reflects this concern with only 16% of black adults saying they believe the vaccines will be distributed evenly.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black and Latino Americans die three times as fast as they are from Covid-19 and are hospitalized four times higher.
Previous studies have shown that many black Americans will not get the vaccine because of the country’s history of racism in medical research. They point to the Tuskegee experiments of 1932-1972 which recruited 600 Black men – 399 who had syphilis and 201 who did not – and followed the progression of the disease by not treating the men while they were dead or had serious health problems.