Some of the communities in Contra Costa County hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic have received doses of vaccines at a slower pace than less affected cities, and white residents are being inoculated disproportionately more than other breeds, according to county data.
Richmond, Antioch and Bay Point saw about 5% of their residents receive their first dose of the vaccine by Thursday. All three have thousands more positive cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents than cities like Walnut Creek, Lafayette and Danville, where between 13% and 16% of residents received their first dose.
White residents of Contra Costa County received more than 39,000 first and second doses of the vaccine as of Thursday, while “Hispanic or Latino” residents received about 12,000 doses, according to county data.
These numbers underline the disparity compared to who is receiving COVID-19. The data shows that while Hispanic or Latino residents account for 32% of all positive cases in the county, they represent 26% of the population, while white residents, who represent 65% of the population, account for 23% of all cases.
There is some level of overlap between the two groups because “Hispanic or Latino” is listed as ethnicity and white is listed separately as a race on county panels.
County health officials recognized racial and geographic gaps during a meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, saying this could be attributed not only to the demographics of the county’s nursing homes and health workforce, but also to the difficulties in reaching residents in areas most affected by communities, especially those who do not speak English.
“One of the reasons why we invest so much team time and emphasis on community involvement and involvement is that we know historically that there are communities that have been left behind,” said county health director Anna Roth at the meeting.
The issue was first raised by Supervisor John Gioia, whose district includes Richmond, El Cerrito and San Pablo. Although San Pablo leads the municipality in cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents, only 8% of residents received their first doses until Thursday.
“Some of the low-income black communities have half the rate of these other communities,” said Gioia. “I just want to say that it is worrying for me to see.”
The launch of doses of the coronavirus vaccine in Contra Costa County, which began in December, focused first on frontline health professionals and then on long-term staff and residents. In January, the county expanded its distribution to all residents aged 65 and over, as well as other essential frontline workers operating in congregated environments.
Among those who actually received the doses, about a third are elderly, what the county health officer, Dr. Chris Farnitano, said at Tuesday’s meeting, could explain part of the disparities.
“Our elderly population is whiter than the general population, and there is a greater concentration in the central and southern regions,” said Farnitano.
He later added that about a quarter of the county’s vaccine stock went to distribution partners like Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and CVS Pharmacy. Health officials are trying to take doses to distribution sites in the most affected communities, he said.
In November, the Council of Supervisors unanimously declared racism to be a public health crisis, partly because the Latinx community was disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 due to a lack of access to health resources.
That same month, Contra Costa Health Services hired Gilbert Salinas to act as the department’s first stock director. Salinas could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Roth said the new hire was tasked with showing health workers how to reach “long-standing marginalized communities”.
“It shouldn’t be seen as extra secondary work or afterthought,” said Roth. “It was a deliberate investment.”