Recently, focus regarding the coronavirus has centered around vaccines and vaccine distribution. While many see these advancements as a step towards herd immunity and a light at the end of the tunnel, it is important to understand the extent to which who this may immediately apply to.
First, it is significant to note that “racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by coronavirus.” This specific article from the Mayo Clinic came out in August of 2020, and similar articles have been released by the New York Times, Scientific American, others before, during, and after summer. This fact has been known, yet “In 16 states that have released data by race, white residents are being vaccinated at much higher rates—in many cases two to three times higher.” (corroborated by CDC data below)
In fact, recent data from New York based on ZIP code points to the fact that there are “troubling disparities in the city’s vaccination effort" showing ZIP codes with high proportions of white residents being fully vaccinated at nearly a rate of eight times more than areas that are predominately Black. And in the Scientific American Article mentioned earlier, titled "Black Americans Are Getting COVID Vaccines at. Lower Rates than White Americans," it explains a situation in which UVA Health System janitorial staff members did not have access to the hospital email and therefore were not being included in information regarding vaccine registration for hospital staff, further exposing the nationwide issue regarding accessibility, inclusion, and equitable distribution in vaccine efforts. “'That’s what structural racism looks like,' said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. 'Those groups were seen and not heard—nobody thought about it.'”
I do want to take the space to note that “people across the country who live in underserved neighborhoods face a variety of obstacles to vaccination, including registration systems and websites that can take hours to navigate, a lack of transportation and difficulty getting time off from work to get a shot. Many people in communities of color are more likely to be hesitant about getting vaccinated, in light of the history of unethical medical research in the United States” (NYT). But in knowing this, there needs to be extra effort in setting up more and accessible vaccination sites, education surrounding the true scientific safety of vaccines, specific targeting and advocacy for groups who are known to be high risk and disproportionately effected, and government involvement to do this. As Dr. Fola May (UCLA physician and health equity researcher) says, “My concern now is if we don’t vaccinate the population that’s highest-risk, we’re going to see even more disproportional deaths in Black and brown communities.”
While it is great news that Biden has ordered more vaccines and is planning to vaccinate a large number of people in the months to come, there is a responsibility to hold the government and healthcare system accountable in equitable practice. What has been occurring regarding covid rates and vaccine distribution speaks to pre-existing intersections between institutional racism, health equity, and the lack of government induced outreach and advocacy. There needs to be substantial policy and movement towards getting vaccines to those who are truly the highest risk; And it is vital to understand that doesn’t only mean the elderly.
5 comments:
I think that one of the reasons why the vaccine has been disproportionately effecting minorities is, like you said, because of the structure of racism in our country and how institutional racism affects every part of our life. I think that we as Americans should acknowledge this issue with our system and try our best to get vaccines out to everyone equally as fast as we can in order to ensure that minorities are not dying at higher rates than whites like they have been over the course of this pandemic. I think that one of the ways we can increase the funding and production of the vaccine in order to get it to more people would be to take some money out of the military budget, say 10-20 billion, and put it toward the vaccine. Our military is already pretty overfunded, and in addition COVID is much more of a threat to the US right now than any foreign or domestic organization or group. Thank you so much for sharing!
The various obstacles that prevent equitable access to the vaccine in underprivileged communities remind me of the voting restrictions that sought to disenfranchise black people and other minorities, although the current barriers seem less deliberate and more a consequence of a perpetuated ignorance towards structural inequality and our history—I thought the example of the janitorial staff being left off of the email list was very telling in that regard. As we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, the vaccine just exacerbated the imbalances that already existed, and we can either let the cycle continue, or use the pandemic as an opportunity to concretely address issues in access by setting up the proper infrastructure to ensure such communities are no longer left behind at every turn. Moreover, because ensuring national security includes defending against threats to health and well-being, I think the government has an imperative to prompt and guarantee equitable distribution in the name of the stability of our communities and justice.
It is unfortunate to see that this institutionalized racism continues to persist in our country especially in times of crisis like the current Covid pandemic. This is especially alarming since numerous statistical reports have found that minority groups and communities have been the hardest hit by the pandemic. This is due to numerous issues that all simply tie back to discrimination. From disadvantaged housing through decades of redlining to a severe lack of healthcare coverage on minority families, these groups have been suffering during the pandemic with little aid coming their way. It is often through these crises that large and often ugly disparities lie between the socioeconomic and racial groups of our country. As we enter into the second year since Covid has been declared a pandemic and with hundreds of thousands of vaccines readily available, I believe that it is time to finally recognize the disadvantages and hardships these minority communities are facing. Although graphics and data from the article help demonstrate these troubling disparities in how minority groups are being aided during the pandemic (through vaccinations) compared to Caucasians, it is often not enough to garnish interest from politicians to incite change. Overall, although the Biden Administration has made steps in the right direction by placing more emphasis on social distancing and masks wearing in public as well as rejoining the Paris Climate agreement, with these new life saving vaccines ready to be distributed, it is important that they take the necessary action to place greater emphasis on giving the vaccinations to those in need which includes much of the minority communities and close the gap in vaccinations between Caucasians and minority communities.
I thought the example you brought up about a janitorial staff not being on the email list--and as a result not being informed about vaccine registration--was especially powerful. So was the distrust by minorities in the vaccine due to the bad history on medical research in the United States (where often the federal government misleadingly and even inhumanely testing medicine on African Americans, i.e. Tuskegee test). To me, this shows the need to invest more resources in communication with respect to vaccine distribution and the vaccine’s reliability. It seems that an effective way to do this is giving communication guidelines to local communities. I say that because you mentioned white communities have been vaccinated more frequently (and they probably have more communication resources/experience). Aiding minority or in general impoverished communities as they communicate (in addition to receiving the vaccine) seems critical. We may need to supplement this effort with celebrity and news (comedy news as well) endorsements because so many people idolize and trust celebrity figures. Though I hesitate to make vaccinating celebrities common (priority should be given to elderly, first responders, health-compromised), we may need to have demonstrations of a select few celebrities with expansive reach actually taking the vaccine (as with Obama, Bush, and Clinton). Of course, this communication step comes after ensuring that all communities are given the resources to distribute the vaccine itself.
I think my peers all bring up very important points regarding institutionalized racism in the US. In the case of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, infection rates, and hospitalizations of different ethnic backgrounds, it’s important to make the connection to a lack of resources and financial stability the minority groups have. Many of these underprivileged families are unable to sustain their families during the pandemic and are forced to continue to work (perhaps multiple jobs at once) and possibly without proper protective equipment, increasing their overall exposure (which would be later transmitted to their family). At the same time, many of these families do not access to the internet, time, or money to sign up, travel to a vaccine distribution location, and receive a vaccination.
I would also like to draw possible parallels that may be happening in our local communities as well (while it may not be directly related to institutionalized racism exactly). Mr. Silton also mentioned the lack of Hispanics and African Americans in the Hillsborough/Crystal Springs area in one of our exams. I also vaguely remember our school (possibly) mention that they had a more difficult time reaching out to certain students of similar ethnic backgrounds than of the rest of the school. And so, I think there are interesting indirect dynamics that in play that we need to address in order to ensure equity, especially now during the pandemic when lives are on the line.
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