The vaccination of children against COVID-19 brought to light another flaw in the country’s efforts to combat inequalities that the pandemic highlighted: Health systems have provided little information about the race of children who receive the vaccine and many activists believe that Hispanic and black children are lagging behind.
Only a handful of states provided information on the race and age of those who receive vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not distinguish the race of those vaccinated.
Despite the lack of information, public health authorities and physicians are aware of the disparities and have been trying to promote vaccination in minority communities. They go to schools, broadcast messages in other languages, have mobile vaccination units, and try to convince skeptical parents that vaccines are safe and very effective.
Public health officials believe that racial disparities respond to issues related to work and transportation, in addition to the reluctance of many to get vaccinated and a lack of information.
Parents without transportation have a hard time going to the doctor. Those who cannot miss work, delay the vaccination because they could not stay at home if the little one has an annoying reaction and must be absent from school.
In the few sites that do report the race of children being vaccinated, the results change.
In Michigan, Connecticut, and Washington, white children are vaccinated at much higher rates than black children. But in New York City, the vaccination rate among whites ages 13 to 17 is lower than that of Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians.
In Connecticut, vaccination rates for children ages 12 to 17 in predominantly white and wealthy localities are more than 80%.
In Hartford, 39% of boys ages 12 to 17 are immunized. In the West Hartford suburb, 88% of minors of those ages are immunized, according to official state information for November.
In Hartford, 80% of the children in the school system are Black or Hispanic. In West Hartford, whites represent 73% of the student body.
On Monday, parents who dropped off their children at a Hartford school where 75% of the students are Hispanic, Black or Asian, highlighted the disparity of opinions on the subject.
Some said they distrusted vaccines and did not plan to have their children vaccinated. Others couldn’t wait to get them vaccinated. One claimed that he was skeptical at first, but that the information the school offered convinced him of the benefits of the vaccine, including the fact that children would no longer have to take virtual classes at home.
Ed Brown said his nine-year-old will be vaccinated because the boy himself asks for it, even though he still has some doubts. He added, however, that since his son will be vaccinated, he will also receive the vaccine.
“I will not give my son something that I don’t think is safe,” said Brown, who is African-American.
One mother, Zachary Colón, said she was not planning to have her son vaccinated.
“I won’t have him vaccinated. I read that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved it too quickly. I’m afraid they don’t know much about the vaccine, ”he said.
Leslie Torres-Rodríguez, principal of Hartford schools, said low vaccination rates among her students mean more of them are absent.
In Washington, the reluctance of many adults in the African-American community to get vaccinated is echoed among teens. The latest official statistics indicate that the vaccination rate for black children ages 12-15 is almost half that of whites: 29% among blacks, compared to 54% among whites.
One of the priorities of the White House is to promote equality in the field of health. His coronavirus task force said last week that the racial gap between the 194 million people who are immunized had narrowed.
But federal, state, and municipal systems that study public health information have limited resources.
“We haven’t invested in data systems that are badly needed for public health,” complained Georges Benjamins, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “It is a basic failure of this system.”
“This information is vital to have a complete picture and better understanding of where disparities occur,” said Samantha Artiga, director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s racial equality and public health program. “It can be used to better focus our efforts and resources, and to measure progress.”
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AP data expert Angel Kastanis and reporter Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.
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Ma covers education and equality for the AP team dedicated to news about education and equality. It’s at https://www.twitter.com/anniema15
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The Associated Press coverage of news on race and ethnicity is supported in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is responsible for all content.
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