U.S. Lacks Race, Ethnic Data on Half of Covid Vaccinations

(Bloomberg) -- The first detailed picture of the U.S. vaccination campaign shows low uptake among long-term care workers and wide gaps in data on the race and ethnicity of Americans getting the vaccine.

At more than 11,000 nursing facilities, a median of 78% of residents got at least one shot in the early weeks of a federal program run with CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Among staff, the equivalent level was 37.5% vaccinated, according to data released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A second CDC report found that while age and sex data was recorded for almost all of the 13 million Americans who got at least one dose through Jan. 14, the government lacks data on race and ethnicity for about half of those immunized.

“We cannot ensure an equitable vaccination program without data to guide us,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, who leads U.S. President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force. “I’m worried about how behind we are. We must address these insufficient data points as an urgent priority.”

Nunez-Smith, who highlighted the data gaps at a briefing Monday, said Covid-19 equity “must be achieved by a very wide lens. We know that this disease has not affected all racial ethnic groups the same.”

Among those for whom data is available, 60% were non-Hispanic White, 11.5% were Hispanic or Latino, 5.4% were Black, 6% were Asian. Those recorded as other or multiple races accounted for 14.4%.

The CDC report cautioned that interpretation of the demographic data is limited because of the data gaps and differences in how race and ethnicity is recorded. But the percentage of vaccine recipients who are Black “appears lower relative to the percentage of persons who are Black” in populations prioritized for the vaccine, including long-term care residents.

In the federal program for long-term care settings, pharmacy chains host a series of three clinics at facilities to administer the two-shot inoculations. Some have reported significant increases in uptake among staff during the second clinic.

In Louisiana, only 26% of nursing-home workers who were offered a vaccine during the initial clinics received one, compared with 69% of residents, said Joseph Kanter, an official with the Louisiana Department of Health. But the state is seeing a “dramatic increase” in uptake among employees amid the second of three scheduled visits, he said.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.