Studies have found that vaccine hesitation and social vulnerability continue to be a barrier to broader COVID-19 vaccination.

The new study highlights the urgent need for policy intervention to address the social vulnerability of the country’s vaccination efforts at this stage and the hesitation of the COVID-19 vaccine.

These two factors were independently important in predicting adult county-level COVID-19 vaccination rates. study It was published in the November issue of Health Issues.

“We were trying to analyze county vaccination rates across the pandemic to understand the disparities seen between counties,” said Matthew, the lead author of a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. A. Crane said. Intense health care.

Due to limited public health resources, it is important for policy makers to specifically target outreach activities. “Counties have unique situations regarding hesitation and social vulnerability levels, so it may be necessary to customize policies to suit the individual needs of each county,” said District Health, formerly in Los Angeles. Mr. Crane, who was a member of the committee, said.

In the report, the authors expressed a sense of urgency. “Despite the rise in recent weeks, immunization rates against COVID-19 in the United States continue to be inadequate, threatening the country’s ability to control and avoid outbreaks,” they write. .. “The increasing dominance of the B.1.617.2 (delta) mutant of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States poses a challenge, and the increased transmission rate calls for more adoption of the COVID-19 vaccine. is showing.”

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Analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we analyzed the COVID-19 vaccine in 2,868 counties in the United States from March 28, 2021 to August 1, 2021, for a total of 229.1 million adult residents. We investigated the scope of application.

The coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine represents the fully vaccinated proportion of the population over the age of 18. The county’s vaccine evasion was based on an analysis by the Ministry of Health and Welfare that relied on the latest estimates from the Household Pulse Survey (May 26, 2021 to June 7, 2021).

In that study, hesitation was characterized as the percentage of residents who reported “probably not” or “never” COVID-19 vaccination at this time. The counties were layered into low, medium, and high hesitation tertiles, with the same number of each tertile.

To compare vulnerabilities between counties, the authors adopted the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index. It is a 15-item scale that measures socioeconomic status, household composition and disability, racial and ethnic minority status and language, housing type and transport. The higher the value, the higher the vulnerability.

The author’s study revealed that both hesitation and social vulnerabilities have an independent negative association with the scope of the COVID-19 vaccine. “Over time, hesitation has become a stronger predictor of differences between counties, but social vulnerabilities continue to be a factor and are becoming increasingly important in scale,” the author said in a report. Stated.

By the conclusion of the study, the average vaccination rate was 17% lower in high hesitation counties than in low hesitation counties, even after the authors adjusted for social vulnerability. However, they found that “counties with high hesitation and vulnerability continue to be at greatest risk of not achieving high COVID-19 vaccination rates.”

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They concluded that nearly 20% of the counties evaluated in this survey “fit this explanation.” “In the final week of the analysis, COVID-19 vaccination rates were well below the average (56%) of the analysis samples in these socially and politically complex counties, both public health and fairness. For this reason, these counties need to be a top priority for state and state intervention. “

The authors are also “particularly concerned that the COVID-19 vaccination rate gap between high-socially vulnerable counties and moderate- and low-socially vulnerable counties is widening over time. I found that. They recommended that “a new focus be placed on efforts to reduce inequality due to social vulnerabilities.”

Establishing a vaccine clinic in a disadvantaged community and “meeting people where they are” is paramount to leading a more successful vaccination campaign, Crane told Fierce Healthcare. rice field. “Our study emphasizes the complexity of trying to reach an unvaccinated population in the United States,” he said. “Not all counties have a universal approach.”