The flawed data collection on the breed of coronavirus vaccine recipients in Louisiana made it difficult for state officials to understand whether the initial doses were distributed fairly to state residents.
Just over a month since Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines began arriving in Louisiana, most people who received the injection have been marked as “other” or “unknown” on forms that hospitals and pharmacies must submit to the Department of Health from Louisiana.
Approximately 36% were marked as “others” and 20% were marked as “unknown”, according to data released on Friday by Governor John Bel Edwards. This means that the state does not know about more than half of the approximately 300,000 doses administered to date.
Of the recipients tabulated by race, 33% were white, 10% were black, 0.85% were Asian, 0.1% were native Hawaiians and 0.12% were American Indians.
The Louisiana Department of Health reported an additional 1,796 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 36 confirmed deaths in its midday update on Friday.
At a news conference on Friday, Edwards called the data “a minor problem” and said the state “would make every effort to ensure that suppliers” provided complete data.
The lack of data on race gives an inaccurate picture of who is taking vaccines in the state. It could also undermine the urge by Edwards, as well as by federal officials, to distribute vaccines equitably, after the virus itself has had a disproportionate impact on the black and Latin communities.
“It means that we don’t know what the information we have really means,” said Susan Hassig, an epidemiologist at the University of Tulane. “What if [the unknown] is anywhere above 10 or 15%, it becomes really problematic. “
There may be reasons for choosing “another,” said Thomas LaVeist, dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a member of the state’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. It may be that people of color are being vaccinated at a higher rate, but they do not want to indicate their race for fear that they may be treated differently.
It may also be that employees who distribute the vaccine are not trained in the importance of collecting racial data.
Governor John Bel Edwards is expected to share the latest news about the coronavirus in Louisiana early Friday morning.
“Sometimes, people in the healthcare field didn’t complete the race data because they didn’t see the importance,” said LaVeist. ” But for something like that, race is an extremely important variable because it allows us to monitor how we are doing, we are reaching the entire population. “
The data release on Friday follows a stern memo from the coronavirus response officer, Dr. Joe Kanter, who said providers cannot discriminate by reserving vaccines for existing patients. A letter released the same day also addressed the choice of “other” as a race.
“Routinely selecting ‘other’ as a standard in the racial field is not acceptable and will undermine the state’s ability to understand and deal with inequalities in the distribution of vaccines,” says the letter.
The Times-Picayune and The Advocate held a summit on virtual economic prospects on Friday morning, analyzing Louisiana’s economy in 2021.
The state’s current vaccination plan does not prioritize anyone based on race or ethnicity. However, it is a factor that has been considered.
“When you look at the black population and who has been affected, it’s people who work in essential jobs,” said Hassig, a consultant who works on the Louisiana Department of Health’s vaccine distribution plan. “That’s one of the reasons why we put these people at the top of the list of priorities.”
Come back to find out more.