NYC’s COVID racial disparities extend to vaccine distribution
Medical worker administers a COVID-19 vaccine dose at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. noamgalai / Shutterstock
White residents in New York City have been obtaining more COVID-19 vaccine doses than Black or Latino residents, according to incomplete data released on Sunday, The New York Times reports.
About 48% of the nearly 300,000 New Yorkers who had received at least one vaccine dose and reported their race identified themselves as white, despite making up only 32% of the city’s population. In comparison, 15% of recipients were Latino, 15% were Asian and 11% were Black. Black and Latino residents – who represent 24% and 29% of the city’s population, respectively – received disproportionately fewer vaccines. Those disparities were only more severe among New Yorkers above the age of 65 and for recipients who lived outside of the city but received doses there.
The City recently illustrated how this inequity has played out by writing about a vaccine site in Washington Heights, which had no Spanish-language interpreters and mostly doled out doses to suburbanites. The health network operating that site later adjusted its policy to prioritize vaccines for city residents, particularly locals living in Washington Heights, Inwood, Northern and Central Harlem and the South Bronx.
New York City’s next step to ensuring a more equitable distribution will involve a “census-style outreach campaign” in 33 neighborhoods. Its website for scheduling vaccine appointments will also now be available in 11 languages, including Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, French, Haitian-Creole and Korean.