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Dallas officials are making changes after three high-income zip codes received a disproportionate share of the county’s first COVID-19 vaccines.
Of the 3,071 doses distributed at the Fair Park vaccination site, 461 doses went to people in three high-income zip codes, while people in two zip codes with the highest number of COVID-19 infections have received a total of 49 doses, according to Dallas Affiliate ABC WFAA.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said a link to the nomination system that was shared among North Dallas residents allowed them to skip the line.
“Now we have a dating system that cannot be hacked,” Jenkins said. “The people who get nominations are the most vulnerable.”
MORE: Rich countries rack up COVID vaccine: report
In addition to the dating system crash, more and more people from affluent neighborhoods are signing up on the county’s waiting list, which now has 300,000 names. Jenkins attributed the disparity to existing inequalities: Compared to high-income people, low-income people are less likely to have reliable transportation, Internet access, or equal access to information.
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There are also signs that racial disparities, which appeared repeatedly during the pandemic, are already present in the way the vaccine is distributed. In neighboring Tarrant County, Texas, which is 30% Hispanic, only 5% of those vaccinated were Hispanic.
A Kaiser Health News analysis released this week also found that in the 16 states that published racial data on their initial vaccine distribution, black Americans are getting vaccinated at a lower rate than white Americans, even though officers primary care providers are generally a diverse cohort.
MORE: COVID vaccination is a challenge for rural hospitals, and Texas is going through a particularly difficult time
Texas has administered 1.1 million vaccines so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which translates to 4,001 vaccines per 100,000 population.
As of Tuesday, Texas had reported 2.1 million infections and 32,711 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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