Black and Latino people are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at significantly lower rates than whites, a disparity that specialists attribute to the actions of the federal government and hospitals, which
do not prioritize equal access
to doses for different communities.
Vaccination records in 14 states show that doses have reached, on average,
4% of the white population, but only 1.9% of the black population and 1.8% of the Latino population
, according to an analysis by CNN. .
The disparities in the campaign are known days after the arrival of a new Administration, which has promised to redouble vaccination efforts as well as to implement public policies in favor of racial equity.
The president, Joe Biden, plans to sign executive orders against racial inequality on Tuesday, which focus on improving prison conditions, promoting policies for more equitable access to housing, among other measures.
"The United States has never fulfilled its founding promise of equality for all, but we have never stopped trying," Biden said Tuesday on the social network Twitter when announcing that he will sign executive orders.
"I will take
action to advance racial equity
and bring us closer to that union that we have always wanted," he added.
Racial equity is a top priority for the Biden Administration.
Photo January 25, 2021. AP
Black and Latino communities are already the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with death rates from the virus three times higher than whites, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English).
Healthcare access experts and advocates say
the federal government can help alleviate disparities by
strengthening partnerships with community leaders and churches, among other concrete actions to include people of different races and ethnicities in the vaccination campaign. .
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Hospitals, for example, must ensure that all their workers, including food and maintenance service personnel, receive information on how to access the vaccine, said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, to CNN.
The specialist pointed out that measures such as offering different vaccination schedules and facilitating transportation to health centers for the most impoverished families can improve access.
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There may also be difficulties for these populations to trust the vaccine and its effectiveness, despite the fact that it has been tested in clinical trials and authorized by the federal government.
Specialists point out that the community needs to receive reliable information.
In some states, inequality has been more pronounced.
In Pennsylvania, whites have been vaccinated four times more often than blacks
when the population of each racial group is taken into account, the CNN analysis indicates.
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The impetus that is being tried to give to the vaccination campaign, which began with delays, may deepen this inequity.
"Those who have historically had the least access to health care will be the ones most likely to be left out of the coverage of the vaccination campaign," Alexandre White, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the Miami Herald.
Biden's Orders for Racial Equity
The president has repeated that racial equity will be one of the
priority issues for his new Administration
and that he will promote criminal justice reform and end
disparities in access to health care, education and housing.
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Among the executive orders Biden will sign is the reinstatement of the Barack Obama-era policy on the transfer of military-type equipment to local police.
The establishment of measures to improve
conditions in prisons
and eliminate the use of private prisons.
Additionally, Biden will sign a memorandum directing the Department of Housing to take steps to
promote fair policy
.
It will also
formally reject discrimination
against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community that has occurred around the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Among the executive orders Biden signed last Wednesday, shortly after he was sworn in as president, was one ordering the federal government "to
adopt a comprehensive approach to promoting equity
.
"
The White House Home Policy Council, led by Susan Rice, will be in charge of coordinating with various federal agencies in this regard.
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Biden directed the Office of Management and Budget to assess "whether underserved communities face systemic barriers to
accessing the benefits
and opportunities available."
With information from
NBC News, Miami Herald and CNN.