Topline
Healthcare facilities in U.S. counties with higher Black populations were 32% less likely to offer Covid-19 vaccines than areas with smaller than average Black populations, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Medicine, as health experts continue to emphasize the need for equal access to vaccines as key to curbing the pandemic.
Covid-19 vaccines were less available in U.S. counties with higher Black and Hispanic populations, … [+]
Key Facts
71.8% of eligible pharmacies and 55.5% of all healthcare facilities offered Covid-19 vaccines in counties where the Black population is greater than 42%, compared to 76.3% of pharmacies and 60.5% of healthcare facilities in counties where the Black population is less than 12.5%, according to the study.
Just over half of healthcare facilities in rural counties administered the vaccine (51.1%), one of the lowest rates, below the 62.7% that offered vaccines in suburban areas and 64.4% in urban areas, according to the study, which analyzed data from more than 50,000 pharmacies across nearly 3,000 U.S. counties in May, 2021.
Median income also played a deciding role in vaccine availability, with 71.8% of pharmacies and 45.5% of all healthcare facilities in the bottom tier of median income areas serving as vaccine administration sites, significantly lower than the 76% of pharmacies and 61.4% of healthcare facilities overall that served as vaccine sites.
Rural countries with above-average Hispanic populations were 26% less likely to serve as vaccine administration facility compared to counties compared to counties with smaller than-average Hispanic populations, while more healthcare facilities overall in counties with Hispanic populations below 18.5% offered vaccines (62.2%) than in counties where the Hispanic population was more than 38.7% (56.4%).
People in counties with higher Covid-19-related mortality rates had fewer options at healthcare facilities (54.6%) and pharmacies (71.4%).
Tangent
The study comes one week after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel recommended the fourth available vaccine, Novavax, for adults, and two weeks after the protein-based vaccine received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration—which lawmakers believe will increase vaccine availability and assuage fears over mRNA-based vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna.
Surprising Fact
Despite the numbers in the study, the CDC estimates more Black people over 18 are fully vaccinated (85.1%) than white people (84.3%) and Hispanic people (85.7%), according to data collected between April 2021 and May 2022.
Key Background
The World Health Organization and United Nations Development Programme declared vaccine equity a top priority, amid findings that nearly 73% of people in high-income countries received at least one dose, compared to one-in-five people in low-income countries. The disparity is compounded by healthcare systems themselves, the UNDP found, with high-income countries needing to increase their healthcare spending by an average .8% to vaccinate 70% of the population (The WHO’s target by mid-2022), a drop in the bucket of the estimated 56.6% increase needed in low-income countries to achieve the same goal.
Furhter Reading
Here’s How Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Has (And Hasn’t) Changed Over 2021 (Forbes)In California, vaccines closed gap in Covid-related deaths for Latinos (NBC News)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/07/28/vaccine-rollout-was-weaker-in-greater-black-populations-and-rural-areas-study-finds/