Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday vowed to prioritize “equity” in “everything we do” at the health agency, two days after it released a report showing that there are disparities in vaccination rates between various racial and socioeconomic demographics.
“I can promise you as long as this team of people are here, as long as I am here, we will bake into the cake of everything we do our commitment to equity, to science and to bring back the health to the American people and to keep it there,” she said during President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.
The Biden administration has focused on creating equity in its vaccine distribution plans. However, a CDC report published Wednesday that analyzed the first 2.5 months of the country’s vaccine data showed the U.S. falling short in meeting its goal.
The analysis of the 51,873,700 Americans who received at least one dose examined how many of those individuals lived in communities identified as vulnerable by the CDC’s social vulnerability index, which is calculated using 15 indicators including area poverty, household demographics and minority status.
Nationwide, vaccine coverage was reached for 13.9 percent of people in counties with high social vulnerability, compared to 15.8 percent in counties with low social vulnerability, the report shows.
The largest disparity occurred in connection with socioeconomic status, with vaccine coverage 2.5 percentage points higher in counties with low vulnerability in such areas than in high-vulnerability counties.
The report says “equity in access to COVID-19 vaccination has not been achieved nationwide.”
Researchers said they found “equity” in vaccine coverage in just two states: Arizona and Montana.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has received much blowback over his state’s vaccine distribution after a pop-up vaccination event at a wealthy community in Manatee County, just south of St. Petersburg, drew national attention and criticism.
Democrats accused the governor of playing politics and favoring white, wealthy Republicans in the state’s vaccine distribution efforts. State Representative Michele Rayner, a St. Petersburg Democrat, accused the governor of prioritizing “affluent neighborhoods in Manatee County over our underserved populations.”
However, the state ranked ahead of California and five other states in distributing shots to the communities that have seen the worst infection rates during the pandemic.
Jared Moskowitz, Florida’s emergency management director and a Democrat, told National Review last month that ultimately vaccine distribution in the state is based on math, not politics.
Moskowitz said the media breathlessly covered the Manatee County vaccination event because it “fit a narrative that many wanted to tell.”
“We’re trying to vaccinate as many seniors as possible,” Moskowitz said. “Does a senior who lives in a housing project who might get COVID versus a senior that lives in Century Village or The Villages, if they get COVID, they both wind up in the hospital potentially in each of their communities. And that end of the day, we have to vaccinate everybody.”
Florida leads the nation in vaccinating seniors 65 and older.