In March 2021, an editorial in the Inquirer asked, “Why are Black people treated like America’s vaccine hesitancy problem?” This editorial is the first of 94 references to my research team’s new work published in the journal Scientific Reports. An analysis of the 385,930 doses of COVID-19 vaccines shipped to Pennsylvania during the first phase of vaccine distribution (December 14, 2020 to April 12, 2021) found that white people were more likely to receive COVID-19 vaccines than Black people. It was found that 81.4% more doses were being shipped to nearby areas.
How did it happen and why does it still matter?
From December 2020 to July 2021, 92% of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States were shipped to addresses determined by large pharmacy chains, rather than state or local governments. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been transferred to pharmacies through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program (FRPP). The federal government paid about $15 to $20 per shot and shipped those doses for free to pharmacies, which billed private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid for each shot.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance promising to make FRPP “fully accessible to jurisdictions,” but that promise was empty.
According to the General Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress, state and local officials have received “limited or no information about where vaccine doses are going” and that “states… It has become difficult for the government to independently distribute the vaccines that have been released.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General reported that 44 of 56 government programs received inadequate data on FRPP shipments, while 14 programs received no data at all from at least one pharmacy chain.
The public was also kept in the dark.
A March 2021 Politico article praised FRPP for administering 65% of doses to “racial and ethnic minorities,” but GAO’s second report says the actual number is 40%. It is said that it is less than The first 100 Google News results reveal that there was no other mainstream coverage of FRPP between April 2021 and January 2023. During this period, Hill claimed, “the strategy worked wonders.” In a way, it was.
Without proper data, competent authorities were left with questions about how to diagnose, let alone treat, racial disparities in FRPP vaccination. “This data gap hampered efforts to identify and address inequities in vaccine distribution and administration,” according to the second Office of Inspector General report. One state told GAO that pharmacies sent excess doses of vaccine to “areas with sufficient numbers,” but without the authority to stop them, state officials would “deliver vaccines to high-need community pharmacy hubs.” All they could do was “negotiate with their pharmacy partners to send the doses,” he said.
However, the CDC wrote in April that the FRPP should “serve as a model for providing health care services in other public health emergencies.”
In Philadelphia, where chart-topping racism facilitates racial exclusion, whites saw a 570.1% increase in doses, not an 81.4% increase in FRPP doses shipped to their neighborhoods. And the FRPP changed Philadelphians of all races in a short period of time. The city, home to more than 12% of Pennsylvania’s population and already facing shortages amid the domestic for-profit vaccine scandal, received just 2.18% of doses from FRPP.
It’s not a “model”, it’s a bad influence.
Nationally, Black people were being blamed for their own low vaccination rates even before vaccines were available. But data showed Black people in Pennsylvania and elsewhere wanted the vaccine. As of April 2021, Black Pennsylvanians were 65% less likely to be vaccinated than white Pennsylvanians. A year later, once a vaccine was widely available, people were 20% more likely to get vaccinated, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Where was that heading?
The CDC should focus on solving vaccine distribution problems instead of issuing endless reports on vaccine hesitancy. As long as Black Americans are denied equal access to health care, anyone who tells them to trust the health care system and make better health care choices is more than a one-two punch of gaslighting and victim blaming. Don’t give anything away.
Rather than dwelling on racial differences in vaccine hesitancy, we should celebrate the persistence of underserved communities who have overcome challenges, overcome legitimate fears, and successfully vaccinated themselves. is.
Jeff Holzman is a Philadelphia-based researcher, data scientist, and author whose publications span philosophy, psychology, bioethics, and public health.
