Guest Blogger, Karina Patel
We are the grocery store workers, nurses, social workers, bank tellers, Uber drivers, caregivers, and fast food workers. The ones who leave the safety of our homes each day to provide for our families. The ones who are afraid of contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to our loved ones. The ones who do not have the luxury of working from home.
For those of us who are essential workers during the pandemic, getting the COVID-19 vaccine is more than a matter of convenience. It is a sigh of relief, the difference between safety and fear.
Knowing that people of color are more likely to be essential workers, and have higher rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalization, and death compared to White people, vaccination is even more important in protecting vulnerable, hard-hit communities.
The rollout of the vaccine in Washington state is phased due to the initial limited supply. Through vaccine allocation and prioritization, Washington state officials have made tough decisions about who gets vaccinated first. The initial phases of vaccine rollout are targeted at those deemed to be at highest risk, including health care workers, people in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, and older adults.
Throughout this whole process, Public Health-Seattle and King County, along with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), has emphasized the importance of equitable access, particularly when it comes to addressing the needs of communities of color who are bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
However, as recent events demonstrate, power and privilege continue to play a role in who gets access to the vaccine. Three Puget Sound hospitals have been caught offering “invitation-only” opportunities to get vaccinated.
Bellevue’s Overlake Medical Center sent an email inviting about 4,000 people, including more than 100 major donors, to an invite-only clinic. The Seattle Times has also confirmed that at least two other Puget Sound-area hospitals, Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett and Kirkland’s EvergreenHealth, have hosted similar exclusive COVID-19 clinics.
Providence Regional Medical Center was not vaccinating members of the public when they held a private clinic for donors, board members, and fundraising volunteers. On the other hand, while its website warns that it is unable to schedule appointments due to low stock, EvergreenHealth offered vaccine doses to board members when it claimed to be testing a scheduling tool.
In response to these reports, the DOH issued a public statement warning that hospitals offering such VIP privileges must stop immediately or risk getting their vaccine supply cut off.
“Since COVID-19 vaccine planning began, equity has been the primary focus of the state’s distribution effort, and to see such cavalier disregard for allocation strategy that prioritizes the most at-risk and disproportionately impacted populations is unacceptable,” the DOH posted on Facebook. “Plainly said, this kind of practice is inequitable, wrong, and must stop immediately. Facilities or organizations found to engage in this practice risk not receiving additional shipments of vaccines.”
Seattle’s outgoing Mayor, Jenny Durkan is calling for changes to be made. “Unfortunately, the recent stories of preferential treatment by providers for financial donors, coupled with the struggles of communities to vaccinate their most vulnerable members, show even more starkly that these systems are failing communities of color,” Durkan said. “This is eroding trust in government at a time when public confidence is crucial for the health and recovery of our communities. Corrective action must be taken now.”
Due to concerns over equitable access, Seattle Children’s Hospital recently cancelled 1,300 COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
On Feb. 2, people seeking vaccination were given the opportunity to make an appointment through MyChart, an electronic medical record system only used by individuals with existing patient relationships and the technical literacy to establish and navigate these accounts.
“Shortly after releasing appointments, we decided we needed broader communication to the greater public of available vaccine appointments as we want to achieve the widest reach possible,” the hospital said in a statement sent to CNN.
While fair access has been described as a goal in many states, including Washington, it has not been the reality. Disparities among rates of vaccination amongst racial groups are stark.
A CNN analysis of vaccination data from 14 states, not including Washington, found that Black and Hispanic Americans are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at significantly lower rates than White people. According to the analysis, the proportion of White people vaccinated was 2.3 times higher than the Black population and 2.6 times higher than the Hispanic population.
A nationwide report from the CDC only 5.4% of those vaccinated are Black and 60.4% are non-Hispanic white. Black people are underrepresented because they make up 13% of the population.
The fact that these communities are getting vaccinated at such low rates should not be fully attributed to vaccine hesitancy. Black communities are not being prioritized when it comes to receiving vaccinations. Some estimates are saying that only 5% of vaccinations have gone to Black communities.
The CDC is struggling to understand the scope of the problem because race and ethnicity data is missing from 48.1% of vaccination data submitted by states. This has been an ongoing problem during the pandemic, as data on cases and deaths was similarly missing in reporting in the early stages of the pandemic.
Strengthening relationships with communities of color, along with revamping systems to be intentional about including these communities in the vaccination efforts, are important in reducing the disparities playing out.
When it comes to addressing the barriers to accessing the vaccine, it is also imperative that there are opportunities for hourly, frontline workers to get vaccinated outside of traditional work hours.
The Biden Administration has detailed a 5-point vaccination plan which includes establishing federally supported vaccination centers in high-risk areas, setting up mobile vaccination sites, equipping pharmacies with vaccinations, partnering with community health centers, and ensuring that jails and homeless shelters are supplied with vaccines.
“We are going to make sure there are vaccination centers in communities hit hardest by the pandemic, in Black and Latino communities and rural communities as well,” Biden said.
In its statement, the DOH also said that it is starting to allocate larger amounts of vaccinations to pharmacies and community centers rather than hospitals. The early stages of vaccine rollout were targeted to reach workers in health care settings, but now the priority is ensuring access to broader groups of people in the community.
Community health centers and BIPOC pharmacies are crucial in providing equitable access to individuals in the community, particularly those who are essential workers and uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19. Public health officials in the state are saying that they are paying close attention to equity. Community must hold them accountable.
Click here to find out when you are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Tubman Center Communications Intern Karina Patel is currently studying Public Health and Law, Societies, and Justice at the University of Washington. She is an aspiring public health professional passionate about social justice, anti-racism, and diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Reach her at karinap@uw.edu. Twitter: @karinappatel
