White New Yorkers who received the coronavirus vaccine outnumber Asian and Latin recipients by more than three to one, and blacks by more than four to one, according to city demographics released on Sunday.
“The information we have shows a clear disparity,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio during a City Hall press conference. “What we see is a particularly pronounced reality of many more people from white communities receiving vaccines than people from black and Latin communities.”
Of the city’s 297,166 adult residents who received at least one dose of the two-dose vaccine that provided racial demographic data, 48% are white, according to the numbers, as of Sunday morning.
Asian and Latin communities each comprise about 15% of the vaccine recipients that indicated their race, while black New Yorkers represent about 11% of the total.
Ten percent of recipients who provided their race were identified as “others”.
However, about 40 percent of vaccine recipients did not provide racial data.
The difference is even greater among the elderly, who are among the most susceptible to the deadly virus.
Of the recipients of the vaccine aged 65 and over who provided racial data, 58% are white, compared with 13% Latino, 11% Asian and 9% black.
The mayor blamed a combination of distrust of the vaccine among minority communities and easier access to vaccines for white New Yorkers.
“We have a deep problem of mistrust and hesitation, especially in communities of color,” he said. “We have a problem of privilege, clearly, where the people who were privileged were able to access the [vaccines] more easily.
“We need to take a more systematic approach to ensure that we focus on the places where the danger is greatest,” continued de Blasio.
Data released at the height of the pandemic, organized by CEP, showed that the coronavirus disproportionately affected poor and minority neighborhoods.
The city will also release demographic data for the vaccine classified by postal code in the coming days, said de Blasio.
To help improve access, de Blasio announced a series of steps, including redesigning the city’s scheduling website and adding more vaccination sites in some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, particularly linked to NYCHA’s developments.
He also said that hospital registration forms for the vaccine – which, as The Post pointed out last week, were only available in English and Spanish – would soon be made available in many other languages: Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Haitian Creole, French, Korean, Polish, Russian and Simplified Chinese.
The data released on Sunday also included an analysis of recipients from within the five districts and from outside areas.
Three-quarters of the partially vaccinated people are residents of the city, against 25% who live outside the city.
Among those who are fully vaccinated, 72 percent are residents of the city, compared to 28 percent elsewhere.
The “vast majority” of vaccinated non-urban residents, however, are considered to be civil servants, including police and firefighters, said de Blasio.
Even if the vaccine was distributed equitably, the city and state have been affected recently by a pronounced shortage of vaccines, leading to the postponement of tens of thousands of consultations and the temporary closure of inoculation centers around the city.