A majority of states are experiencing disparities in getting the COVID-19 vaccine to susceptible communities, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exhibits.
Vulnerable counties are likely to have lower COVID-19 vaccination rates, in line with the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report launched this week.
The CDC used a Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to rank counties based mostly on a mixture of sure components: a excessive share of racial or ethnic minorities, seniors, single-parent households, individuals residing beneath poverty, cell houses residents, individuals with disabilities, or these with out a automobile, amongst others traits.
The study then checked out vaccine administration knowledge for greater than 49 million U.S. residents between Dec. 2020 and March 1 and located that, on common, much less susceptible counties had a vaccination fee 2.5 share factors larger than counties with excessive social vulnerability.
Researchers discovered the disparity nationwide.
“Although vaccination coverage estimates by county-level social vulnerability varied widely among states, disparities in vaccination coverage were observed in the majority of states,” wrote the authors, which included CDC epidemiologist Michelle Hughes and coordinator of the CDC’s SVI Danielle Sharpe, amongst a number of others.
They discovered the biggest disparities in counties that ranked excessive in socioeconomic vulnerability, reminiscent of excessive rates of poverty or unemployment.
“In the first 2.5 months of the program, vaccination coverage was lower in high vulnerability counties nationwide, demonstrating that additional efforts are needed to achieve equity in vaccination coverage for those who have been most affected by COVID-19,” the authors wrote, imploring public well being officers to enhance COVID-19 vaccine protection in majority-minority counties by monitoring community-level metrics for “tailored” vaccine supply.
Dharma Cortés, a sociologist and senior scientist with the Health Equity Research Lab and Harvard Medical School-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance, mentioned the outcomes aren’t shocking.
“These complex factors that shape the lives of these people have a tremendous impact on their ability to get vaccinated,” mentioned Cortés, a medical anthropology knowledgeable. “The same factors that shape the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on these populations are again shaping the way they are actually getting vaccinated or not.”
She added many individuals struggling to make ends meet are working a number of jobs, making it troublesome to take break day to get the shot.
“When people have more than one job, they don’t have time to go and spend hours calling to make an appointment to get a vaccine or surfing the internet to find a site where they actually can sign up for these vaccines,” she mentioned. “Another barrier is transportation. If you have to travel far to get vaccine, spend hours waiting, that definitely has an impact on their livelihood.”
Communities which might be reaching fairness
But some states, reminiscent of Arizona and Montana, achieved the other of the prevailing disparity – with larger vaccination rates amongst individuals residing in susceptible communities.
The researchers observed a sample: States with excessive fairness usually prioritized individuals of colour throughout the early levels of rollout, monitored limitations to getting the shot and labored with neighborhood or tribal organizations. These states additionally supplied free transportation to vaccination websites.
“More investigation is needed to understand these differences to identify best practices to achieve COVID-19 vaccination equity,” the authors wrote.
Also, the researchers discovered equal vaccination rates amongst high and low vulnerability counties when it got here to sure measures reminiscent of the proportion of individuals with restricted English proficiency or with disabilities. Since COVID-19 disproportionately impacts these populations, they famous the discovering was encouraging.
Since “COVID-19 vaccination equity varied among states,” the researchers additionally really useful states and counties to determine Census tracts with the best danger components to prioritize vaccine supply at a extra granular, focused stage.
“Despite these positive findings, equity in access to COVID-19 vaccination has not been achieved nationwide,” the authors wrote.