As California prepares to offer COVID-19 vaccines to a new level of its citizens, immunization rates for black and Hispanic residents continue to lag behind those for whites.
Despite representing 6% of California’s population, African Americans have received only 3% of the nearly 11 million doses of vaccine administered in the state so far. Meanwhile, Latinos have received 17% of the doses distributed so far, although they represent 39% of the state’s population.
In comparison, whites, who represent 72% of the population, have received 32% of the doses administered so far.
On March 3, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California would reserve 40 percent of the COVID-19 vaccines available to residents in disadvantaged areas in an effort to help rectify socioeconomic and racial disparities.
“We will never beat this virus and reopen safely without a targeted approach to our most vulnerable communities,” Newsom said in a tweet last week.
Los Angeles County officials say the need to deliver vaccines to black and brown neighborhoods should be seen as a matter of life and death for communities that have been most affected by the pandemic.
“We are not doing a good enough job of distributing the vaccine fairly,” said Dr. Paul Simon, director of science and director of the Division of Evaluation, Planning and Quality at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Yahoo News. “We know that the COVID pandemic has disproportionately affected certain communities, low-income areas, where housing is more populous, where people are working in essential occupations where they are at risk of contracting COVID. We have seen many, many more infections and, therefore, these populations certainly need to be prioritized for vaccination. “
Details are still scarce on exactly how the plan to vaccinate the needy populations will be carried out.
“We want to incorporate vaccination rates into the layers,” said Newsom last week, “and that will allow people to move through the layers quickly.”
As of Wednesday, California was still limiting vaccinations to residents aged 65 and over, those with serious ongoing health problems, essential workers and residents of long-term care facilities. These restrictions, in addition to the limited supply of vaccines, cause many Californians to travel the state in search of a vaccine.
In Los Angeles, the search for the vaccine sometimes leads wealthy white residents to wait in line at pharmacies in low-income neighborhoods, generating anger in the process.
“They sent these vaccines to this community, not to Beverly Hills,” southern Los Angeles activist Veronica Sance told KTLA. “They took advantage of the situation. They took advantage of the opportunity that is here for our community and that is what I resent. “
During the March 1 COVID-19 County briefing, LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer highlighted the disturbing disparity in vaccination rates. The data shows that its target communities, which include areas such as southern Los Angeles, eastern LA, Koreatown, Chinatown, Compton, southeastern LA County and eastern San Fernando Valley, fell far short of the rates officials expected to see. On March 4, 5.4% of black residents, who make up 9% of the county, received at least one dose of the vaccine, for example.
“I think this vaccination launch has demonstrated as vividly as it could be demonstrated what the impact of the privilege really is,” said Simon, who added that the disparity in vaccination rates has been “significant” and “incredibly frustrating”.
Simon also noted that the systemic advantages for whites in California, such as reliable Internet access and transportation alternatives, make it easier for them to play around with the vaccine launch.
“Through word of mouth, they are able to find opportunities to break the rules and sneak in and get vaccinated,” said Simon.
A similar vaccine disparity has occurred across the country, echoing the rates at which blacks and Hispanic Americans are hospitalized and die from COVID-19 compared to whites.
To correct the problem in LA, Simon said the county is providing transportation assistance to people who may not be able to reach a vaccination site, creating pop-up clinics and ensuring that the county’s marking systems and materials are in multiple languages. , to eliminate that barrier. In addition, the Los Angeles Fire Department was deployed to reach the underserved communities where they live.
In an effort to boost confidence in vaccines among those whose distrust of the US medical system was built by decades of neglect and abuse, Los Angeles County also contacted community organizations and churches to promote the benefits of being vaccinated, as well as to help with creating appointments.
“We are allowing community organizations to know exactly when the available times will be open, so that their customers can gain an advantage in terms of scheduling,” said Simon.
As Newsom acknowledged, the effort to vaccinate black and Hispanic communities in California will go a long way in determining when the pandemic will end. The governor said Wednesday that by April, the state hoped to vaccinate 4 million people a day.
If the state can continue to reach those who are most at risk for COVID-19, then the prediction made by Newsom during the state’s state speech on Wednesday may in fact come true.
“California is not going to come back crawling from this pandemic. We will roar back, ”he said.