Racial disparities in child vaccination are difficult to track

The deployment of COVID-19 shots for elementary school students reveals another blind spot in the US effort to address pandemic inequality. The health system has released little data on the racial breakdown of youth vaccination, and community leaders lag behind black and Latin children.

Only a handful of states publish data on COVID-19 vaccination by race or age, and the Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention does not provide a breakdown of races.

Despite the lack of solid data, public health authorities and medical professionals are paying attention to inequality and reaching out to the color community to overcome vaccine hesitation. This includes attending school, sending messages in other languages, deploying mobile vaccine units, and emphasizing that shots are safe, powerful and effective for skeptical parents. increase.

Public health leaders believe that racial gaps are caused by work-traffic barriers, and prolonged reluctance and information gaps. Parents without transportation have a hard time getting their children in and out of the booking. People who do not have a flexible work schedule or paid parental leave may delay vaccination of their child because they cannot stay home if their child has to be absent from school due to minor side effects. ..

Breakdowns vary in some places reporting COVID-19 vaccines for children by race.

In Michigan, Connecticut and Washington, DC, white children were vaccinated at a much higher rate than black children. However, in New York City, white children between the ages of 13 and 17 are vaccinated at a lower rate than black, Latin, and Asian children.

In Connecticut, vaccination rates for ages 12-17 are over 80% in many wealthy, predominantly white towns.

In Hartford, 39 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 are fully vaccinated. According to state data updated in November, 88% of children of the same age are fully vaccinated across city lines outside West Hartford.

Hartford’s school system is 80 percent black and Latin. Schools in West Hartford are 73 percent white.

Parents who dropped their children at various Hartford Elementary Schools on Monday morning were able to get a glimpse of different opinions about their children’s COVID-19 vaccination. More than 75% of school enrollments are Latino, Black or Asian.

Some people expressed distrust of the vaccine and had no plans to vaccinate their children. Others were completely on board. One father, who was initially skeptical, said the school contact convinced him of the benefits of vaccination for his students, including ending the confusion of face-to-face learning.

Ed Brown said his 9-year-old son would be vaccinated because the boy’s mother feels strongly about it, even though he still has some reservations. .. According to Brown, one of the consequences of the shot being available to his son is to vaccinate himself.

“I don’t give my son anything he doesn’t know is safe,” said black Brown.

Another parent, Zachary Colon, said he decided not to vaccinate his child.

“I haven’t vaccinated my son,” she said. “I read that it got FDA approval very quickly. I suspect they don’t know enough about it.”

Leslie Torres Rodriguez, director of the Hartford School, said low student immunization rates mean that many students will be absent from school.

If a vaccinated student is exposed to infected people, he or she can come to school as long as there are no symptoms. Unvaccinated students should be tested negative to return immediately.

“It can be another barrier for some of our families. Some of our families can’t take the exam for a variety of reasons, so we have to wait 7-10 days. No, and absolutely, it kept the student home, “she said.

In Washington, prolonged reluctance in the black community is reflected in low immunization rates among black adolescents. According to the latest figures provided by the Department of Health of the District of Columbia, the complete immunization rate for black children aged 12 to 15 is more than half that of white children, 29% compared to 54%.

At a recent event facilitating the initiation of vaccinations for children up to the age of five, health director Dr. La Quandra Nesbitt overcomes reluctance despite months of public campaigns in the capital. Admitted that it was difficult.

“People need to want to get vaccinated,” she said. “This is not necessarily an access issue. It is a matter of choice.”

In Seattle, Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic has begun hosting a mobile clinic to provide home vaccinations, information in a variety of languages, and to families who couldn’t otherwise target their children. It was delivered. About 40% of clinic patients are black, 30% speak languages ​​other than English, and 70% use Medicaid.

Chicago’s public health department has planned to extend its home vaccination program to ages 5 and up starting this week. Both the Kammer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago and the Loyola Medical Center in western Chicago planned to send mobile pediatric vaccination units to poorly serviced areas within a few days.

The White House has made health fairness a top priority, and its coronavirus task force said last week that it closed the racial gap between a fully vaccinated population of 194 million. The Biden administration also said it is spending about $ 800 million to support organizations seeking to spread confidence in vaccines among colored and low-income American communities.

However, federal, state, and local systems for tracking public health data are still limited and lacking funding, including tracking data on racial disparities in children’s vaccines, the American Society of Public Health said. Said Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the.

“We are not investing in the data systems that are absolutely necessary for public health,” Benjamin said. “That is the fundamental failure of this system.”

Samantha Altiga, director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Racial Equity and Health Policy Program, said what inequality could exist without broad figures about who is being attacked. Said it was difficult to know.

“Data is the key to getting the big picture and understanding where inequality exists,” says Artiga. “You can use them to focus on your efforts and resources and measure your progress in dealing with them over time.”

The Associated Press’s report on racial and ethnic issues is partially supported by the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.

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