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Federal health officials said on Monday that most of the people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine so far are women, but they do not have data on the race or ethnicity of nearly half of the nearly 13 million Americans to receive COVID-19. vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a statement of their first comprehensive review of the state of the national immunization campaign, says that nationally 63% of those vaccinated were women and 55% were over 50 years old. Agency researchers have released a pair of reports examining the demographics of people vaccinated across the country through Jan. 14 and the rollout of vaccines in long-term care facilities.
Of the data the CDC’s review was able to gather on race and ethnicity, 60% of those vaccinated identified as non-Hispanic whites.
The data is whiter, older, and more feminine than the general population, although CDC researchers cautioned that groups prioritized the shots first.
The reports come as the Biden administration has pleaded with states to step up efforts to roll back the measures.
“There are a few reasons why we are already behind on this issue just a month and a half after the vaccine launch. Lack of federal coordination before, uneven deployment between states, emphasis on fairness in the early days of vaccination, “Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, head of the President’s COVID-19 equity working group, said during a briefing Monday.
“They don’t just hurt our statistics. They hurt the most exposed and hardest hit communities,” Nunez-Smith added.
Less than half of states publicly disclose data on the race and ethnicity of those vaccinated, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation tracker.
The CDC report said reports on race and ethnicity varied widely across the country, with 14% reporting a “multiple or other” race or ethnicity and six jurisdictions reporting no such data.
Nationwide, the CDC says nearly 50 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed. More than 25 million people have received at least one injection, already almost double the pool of Americans analyzed by the researchers.
Public health experts have warned for months that vaccine data reporting requirements do not allow for measuring progress of the vaccination campaign in communities hardest hit by the pandemic, especially since the effort extends beyond frontline health workers and nursing homes that had been prioritized.
In nursing homes, the CDC report says about 78% of residents – and only 38% of staff – had been injected with doses of Pfizer or Moderna through January 17.
State health officials have repeatedly expressed frustration with the roll-out of vaccination in long-term care facilities, which the CDC has blamed in part on vaccine reluctance and logistical challenges.
“Each vaccination clinic will visit the long-term care facility three times. And when they go back for those second and third times, there are staff who accept the vaccine on those second and third visits, ”said Dr Amanda Cohn. at a CDC meeting last week.
“It will be very important to continue to capture staff members who have not accepted the vaccine early, as we try to eliminate outbreaks and protect staff and residents of long-term care facilities,” said added. Dr Cohn.
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