Only recently has access been aligned with hesitancy in providing and administering the COVID vaccine to African Americans. Now that the Biden Administration is in office and the production and distribution of the vaccine has been heightened, the flaws in health care access that African Americans have known about and lived with for decades are fully exposed.
Health care is costly. Ask anyone. The costs may be offset by having “good insurance” if you hold employment with a company that offers it at an affordable price when compared to your wages.
If you are salaried, most times the cost of insurance is substantially covered by your employer. Private health insurance coverage is more prevalent than public coverage, covering 68.0 and 34.1 percent of the population at some point during the year, respectively.
The definition of Public health insurance is a program run by U.S. federal, state, or local governments in which people have some or all of their healthcare costs paid for by the government.
The two main types of public health insurance are Medicare and Medicaid, which are available to citizens that earn a certain amount of income as it relates to the poverty level.
Some of these individuals live in areas that have poor or inadequate health care. The kind of poor health care systems that have improper storage for COVID 19 vaccines, or are lost in the supply chain to receives those vaccines. This clearly helps contribute to the low numbers of African Americans that have received the vaccine. But wait, there’s more.
Below poverty level existence can slant access to technology, the internet, transportation and a job with enough flexibility to take off work to take care of health concerns.
Booking an appointment requires long or multiple telephone calls or computer attempts, which can interrupt work hours. Once an appointment has been successfully scheduled, going to get the vaccine may be met with child care coverage needs, transportation challenges, and long lines.
Today in Maryland to help combat the disparity of access, Governor Larry Hogan and Brigadier General Janeen Birckhead, announced the release of the Maryland Vaccine Equity Task Force Operations Plan to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for hard-to-reach and underserved communities. They were joined by Lieutenant Governor Boyd K. Rutherford.
“We are announcing the very first vaccine equity operations plan in America to further address health disparities and the issue of equity, and to get more vaccines to people in every community who need them most,” said Governor Hogan. “Just as important as making sure shots get into arms quickly is that we work each and every day to ensure fairness and equitable access to vaccines.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting demographic characteristics, including race/ethnicity, of people receiving COVID-19 vaccinations at the national level.
As of March 1, 2021, CDC data showed that race/ethnicity was known for just over half (54%) of people who had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Among this group, nearly two thirds were White (65%), 9% were Hispanic, 7% were Black, 5% were Asian, 2% were American Indian or Alaska Native, and <1% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, while 13% reported multiple or other race. However, to date, CDC is not providing state-level demographic data for people vaccinated.
As of March 1, 2021, 41 states were reporting vaccination data by race/ethnicity. Data shows:
- As observed in prior weeks, there is a consistent pattern across states of Black and Hispanic people receiving smaller shares of vaccinations compared to their shares of cases and deaths and compared to their shares of the total population. For example, in Arizona, 13% of vaccinations have gone to Hispanic people, while they account for 36% of cases, 31% of deaths, and 32% of the total population in the state. Similarly, in Maryland, Black people have received 17% of vaccinations, while they make up 33% of cases, 35% of deaths, and 30% of the total population in the state.
- In most states, the share of vaccinations among Asian people was similar to or higher than their share of cases and deaths, although, in some states, it was lower. The share of vaccinations among Asian people was similar to their share of the total population in most states, and where there were differences, they were generally small.
- White people received a higher share of vaccinations compared to their share of cases and deaths and their share of the total population in most states reporting data. For example, in Georgia, 69% of vaccinations were received by White people, while they make up 52% of the population, and in Nevada, nearly two-thirds (63%) of people who have been vaccinated are White, while they make up less than half (48%) of the total state population.
Overall, across these 35 states, the vaccination rate among White people was over two and a half times higher than the rate for Hispanic people (13% vs. 5%) and nearly twice as high as the rate for Black people (13% vs. 7%). White people have a higher vaccination rate compared to Hispanic people in all reporting states and a higher rate than Black people in every reporting state except Alaska.
However, the size of these differences varies widely across states. For example, White people are more than six times as likely to be vaccinated than Hispanic people in Georgia and over four times as likely to be vaccinated in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and North Carolina, while differences are smaller in Vermont, Missouri, and Alaska.
Vaccination rates for White people are over three times higher than the rates for Black people in Pennsylvania and North Dakota, while differences are smaller in places like DC, Maine, Massachusetts, and rates are similar in Alaska. The vaccination rate for Asian people is closer to the rate for White people in most reporting states, although they are less likely to have been vaccinated in most reporting states. These gaps and patterns mirror those reported as of mid-February.
Reporting the numbers is important, knowing why the numbers vary is equally important. Maryland is taking forward action to correct the differences in access and acknowledging that hesitancy is not the sole reason for African Americans lagging in vaccine receipt.