The early data on vaccination rates are incomplete, but one fact is of particular concern: black Americans are vaccinated much more slowly than their white counterparts. It is worrying given how badly the pandemic hit black Americans.
But it is also worrying because people often misunderstand why the rate is lower. Many people quickly point to mistrust in the medical community, as black people do have a long history of being ignored or actively abused by health care professionals in the United States – especially in the infamous 40-year Tuskegee study, which treated black men denied syphilis so that researchers could detect the natural progression of the disease. But a recent Pew survey disputes the idea that black Americans are reluctant to be vaccinated: A majority of black adults (61 percent) told Pew that they were planning to get a COVID-19 vaccine or that they have already received one, a sharp rise in the 42 per cent who said in November that they intend to be vaccinated.
And it reflects what health experts have told me about this issue. They do not really think that mistrust of the vaccine explains the large gaps in the vaccination rates. What’s more, closing the gap entirely on mistrust is dangerous because it puts black Americans on the verge of vaccinations and distracts us from the real reasons why the vaccination rate is lower. “The experience of black Americans in the U.S. health care system has been very upsetting, to say the least,” said Sean Dickson, director of health policy at the West Health Policy Center. “But we do not want to rely on the narrative that black people are not willing to get the vaccine,” he said, adding that he believes the real problem is the lack of investment in vaccine distribution in black communities.
In fact, a recent NPR analysis found that vaccines, especially those in Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama, were lacking primarily in black and Spanish communities, while few whiter neighborhoods were without one. And in a national study done in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, Dickson found that black Americans in nearly two dozen urban counties in and around Atlanta, New Orleans and Dallas, among a number of other cities, stayed driving distances face vaccination centers as white Americans.
Even if the vaccine distribution centers are evenly distributed, researchers find that color communities still miss out. Residents of affluent, mostly white neighborhoods, often claim to have large amounts of vaccinations in black and Spanish neighborhoods, by utilizing the available supplies. This has happened in several states, including California, where outsiders are abusing a program designed to make vaccine appointments available in color communities.
The fact that vaccine registration is largely online is partly to blame, as there is often a racial difference in who has reliable internet access. Take Washington, DC, where the casual login has made it virtually easier for white people to evict black people trying to get an appointment. The city has decided to quickly implement a new reporting system that could first hire people with zip codes with the highest COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, but some residents said the process still does not help the people who need the vaccine not. the most.
George Jones, whose agency in the DC area runs a medical clinic, told The New York Times that almost none of the people who shot at his clinic were regular patients. “Somehow we have to persuade them to use the spots,” he said. Health experts studying medicine and health inequalities warn that internet access is emerging as a major factor in health, due to the increasing role the internet plays in connecting patients with care, especially during the pandemic. ‘The question is’ Who is actually going to get vaccines? ‘- older adults who are technically proficient, with financial resources and family members to help them, or more difficult to reach populations? Asks Abraham Brody, a professor of nursing and medicine at New York University, in an interview with Kaiser Health News.
Black Americans are also excessively likely to work in leading positions that are classified as essential, meaning it is likely to be more difficult for them to ask for time to get a vaccine. Some states, such as New York, plan to open, or have already opened, several 24/7 websites. And Dickson told me that one thing more cities can do is develop mobile or pop-up vaccination centers that are open for hours that are comfortable for people in the service industry. Some states, such as Texas and New York, are already experimenting with mobile pop-up centers. And in Philadelphia, the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium offers boarding clinics that do not require appointments.
President Biden’s government is also taking more aggressive steps to achieve a fair vaccination rate. Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Monday that the White House would invest $ 250 million in federal grants to organizations working to address gaps in the COVID-19 response. And in January, dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith appointed to lead a new federal task force to tackle coronavirus inequalities; in the same month, the White House launched a plan aimed at increasing data collection across high-risk groups and providing equitable access to vaccines. The $ 1.9 billion economic stimulus plan is also expected to help cities and states open more vaccine points in color communities. Others in Biden’s job, including former President Barack Obama, have vowed to get their injections public to show they are safe.
But perhaps most importantly, Biden has now said that by the end of May, the country is ‘on course’ to have enough coronavirus vaccines. However, experts believe that it will not be enough to overcome the access issues facing many Black Americans. The national provincial analysis conducted by Dickson and his team, for example, found that more than one-third of U.S. provinces have two or fewer types of facilities that could potentially serve as vaccination distribution centers. “Vaccine numbers are low because people do not want the vaccine, but because those who want it cannot get it,” said Robert Fullilove, a professor of socio-medical sciences at Columbia University Medical Center.
It has been said that it is important to address the hesitation of vaccine – when it is there. But the experts I spoke to say issues such as accessibility, lack of investment in black communities and general health inequalities are the biggest obstacles for black people to get the coronavirus vaccine. But these are not the only things that make it harder than it should be. Nunez-Smith had earlier told the Financial Times she was concerned about misinformation about COVID-19 targeting black communities. And already in the black community, some influential drugs against vaccine have been shared; there is also widespread information claiming that the vaccines contain microchips or cause autism (do not). White House officials are working with Facebook, Twitter and Google to stop COVID-19 from going viral, but as we have learned in the last two presidential elections, the fight against misinformation – and misinformation – can be challenging.
There is a serious urgency to ensure that the racial and ethnic differences we see in the current vaccination of vaccines are addressed quickly, especially as the US approaches the one-year anniversary of its first closure. But as Dickson warned me, we need to look clearly at what the problems are, and be careful not to rely on an incomplete “story of vaccine hesitation” to explain why black Americans are being vaccinated at lower rates. ‘The … story can become self-fulfilling when we think of black Americans shall vaccinated at lower prices than white Americans, ”Dickson said. ‘[I]Assuming this is the case, we do not take it upon ourselves to consider it a problem. ‘