One Huge Issue With COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

The COVID-19 vaccine has been in the United States since last year. Unfortunately, vaccine rollout is slow because the former administration did not use their resources wisely to pass out the vaccine. Now that a new administration has taken place, vaccine rollout is slowly ramping up. However, there is a huge issue that the media is not really talking about. White people are being vaccinated at a much higher rate than any other race and ethnicity. 

According to the CDC, by January 26, 2021, 60.4% of those vaccinated were White. 11.5% of them were Hispanic/Latinx, 5.0% of those were Asian, and only 2.0% of them were Black. Health officials are saying these results are “flawed” because only about 50% of the data has been released and it does not account for all the recipients of the vaccine. However, these results are already alarming. 

There are multiple reasons for these daunting numbers. The first recipients of the vaccine were healthcare workers, so this number does not account for the whole population of the race and ethnicity (but it does show the lack of representation in the healthcare field). Also, there are not enough vaccines because Congress is taking forever to pass COVID relief and the funding is not there. As more vaccines are passed out the data will increase. But also, a lot of POC are wary of the vaccine and are afraid to take it. The website to make appointments can be difficult for some people to navigate too. My grandmother was able to get the vaccine, but she speaks only Spanish and does not know how to use the internet, especially when it is all in English. Thankfully she has us to help her, but what about the other people that do not have help? Additionally, the vaccination sites are far and not accessible to everyone. Again, my grandma does not drive and takes the bus everywhere. We were able to take her to a vaccination site 30 minutes away, but what about others that have transportation issues? 

This new administration should be doing everything in its power to ensure racial equity in vaccination numbers. This means bringing the vaccine to people instead of people going to it. Set-up as many vaccination sites as needed in every single community. Send flyers to homes to show where the nearest vaccination site is by people’s houses. Advertise in multiple languages about the significance of the vaccines and why it is safe to get one. Also, advertise POC getting the vaccine so communities of color can see the representation. Release the data of the number of POC that were included during test trials to show that the vaccine has been tested on communities of color and close the skepticism. There are many things officials can do to close this gap of POC being vaccinated, but first, Congress needs to pass COVID relief, so the funding is available. 

There is probably not a loud cry from Congress about this issue because they’re already vaccinated (yup! they got it already!). But these issues need to be addressed immediately if our country wants to head to herd immunity and stop overwhelming hospitals. POC are the most impacted by COVID-19 and all the available resources should be used to bring the vaccine to them. 

• communities
• COVID-19
• poc
• vaccine