Black Americans face highest Covid deaths and now lowest vaccine rates

As the Covid-19 pandemic spiralled out of control in the United States, Black people, in particular, disproportionately bore the brunt of deaths.

Research shows that Black Americans and Latinos face some of the lowest vaccination rates, with only 4.5 percent of Black people vaccinated and 3.5 percent of Latinos.

The analysis released by APM Research Lab found “Black and Latino Americans, who have age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates of more than double that of White and Asian Americans, have not seen strong access and uptake of the vaccine to date.”

The New York Times recently published just how bad the pandemic has been for the Black community's life expectancy, which has declined by 2.7 years in the first half of 2020. That decline, according to the paper, has wiped 20 years worth of gains.

There was one bright spot, Indigenous Americans who have also faced some of the worst rates of Covid-19 deaths are now seeing some of the highest uptakes in the vaccine rollout, with 11.6 percent receiving the vaccine, ahead of white people who are at 9.1 percent.

Researchers in the study are worried that states are not providing or retaining sufficient data on who is getting the vaccine, giving policymakers an incomplete picture of what is happening on the ground. The report went on to warn that “the available picture is concerning for the racially equitable distribution of vaccines."

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed some of the deep fractures in US society - not least amongst racial lines.

Many people of colour in the US are more likely to have poor access to health, work in lower-paying and customer-facing jobs, and employment where they can least afford to take time off and which often provide little to no health insurance.

Additionally, many communities of colours have higher rates of underlying health conditions making coronavirus complications more dire.

The Biden administration has had to contend with a vaccine rollout that initially started slowly, hampered mainly by the former president’s inadequate preparations. The US Centres for Disease Control said that the pace of vaccinations has picked up in recent days, with more than 1.5 million doses administered daily.

Global imbalance

In a recent speech, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned governments against vaccine inequality which could hamper global efforts to tackle the disease.

In a recent summit with leaders from around the world, Guterres warned that, “the world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities.”

The vast majority of vaccines have been bought up by Western countries leaving many developing countries in the lurch about when and if they will ever get the vaccine.

According to a Duke Global Health Innovation Center study, Canada has ordered more than 330 million vaccines, enough for each person to receive 9.6 doses.

On the other hand, the African Union has only been able to order 270 million doses for more than 1.2 billion people.

“If the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire in the Global South, it will mutate again and again. New variants could become more transmissible, more deadly and, potentially, threaten the effectiveness of current vaccines and diagnostics,” Guterres said.