Population Health, COVID-19 Vaccine Rates Impacted by Racial Disparities

Researchers have determined that vaccinating children ages 12 and older is a critical component of protecting population health against future COVID-19 surges. However, data shows that racial disparities could exist among children, further creating health inequality.

On May 10, 2021, children ages 12 and older became eligible for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. As of July 26, more than 5.6 million 12-15-year-olds (37 percent) and 3.6 million 16-17-year-olds (48 percent) received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

However, there is little to no data reflecting vaccination rates among children in racial/ethnic populations, especially troublesome as children return to school in the fall.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not publicly released data on the racial/ethnic composition of individuals vaccinated by age, some states are reporting their own data.

“To better understand potential racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 vaccination among children, we assessed which states are reporting data on COVID-19 vaccinations for children by race/ethnicity and, where data were available, calculated vaccination rates among children by race/ethnicity,” the authors wrote in a brief.

According to the authors, as of July 26, 2021, seven states —Connecticut, the District of Columbia (DC), Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Wisconsin — were reporting vaccination data by race/ethnicity and age.

While these states report race/ethnicity for a children’s age group, the reports vary in how both race/ethnicity and age are categorized, making it difficult to compare data state to state.

The COVID-19 vaccination data of children by race/ethnicity in all seven states shows that White children had higher vaccination rates than Black children. However, the size of this gap varies across the states. In DC, White children were four times as likely to receive the vaccine as Black children.

In Connecticut, a similar trend was seen with White children being 2.5 times more likely to get vaccinated than Black children.

Vaccination rates of White children also surpassed Latinx children in Connecticut, DC, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In Kansas, Michigan, and South Carolina however, vaccination rates of Latinx children were similar to or higher than rates of White children.

Five states (Connecticut, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) were able to calculate the vaccination rates among Asian children, showing higher vaccination rates for Asian children compared to White children.

The authors explained that the limited data presented regarding COVID-19 vaccination patterns among children suggests potential disparities for Black and Latinx children.

“Mitigating disparities in vaccination rates among children is particularly important given the diversity of this population and the broader underlying disparities in health and health care they face. Addressing parents’ concerns about the vaccine will be important for achieving a high vaccination rate across all children,” the authors wrote.

According to the authors, this analysis highlights the continued lack of data available to identify and address racial disparities. Having comprehensive standardized data across all states is critical to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines among children.

“Over the course of the pandemic, lack of disaggregated data has been an ongoing challenge for efforts to identify and address disparities and remains an issue for work to identify and address disparities in health and health care more broadly,” the authors concluded.