Content Warning: Graphic descriptions of racism.
By Talia Reiss, March 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the systematic inequality that exists in American society. Because the demand for vaccines currently outweighs the supply, vaccine rollout has prioritized groups that are higher at risk of contracting or dying from COVID-19. While eligibility in New York is primarily determined based on age and occupation, one factor that we cannot afford to ignore is race.
The CDC reports that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the virus, with Black and Latinx Americans around twice as likely to die from COVID-19.
Nonetheless, several studies have found that Black Americans are vaccinated for COVID-19 at far lower rates than white Americans. One study by Kaiser Health News found that, in all 23 states from which data was collected, the Black vaccination rate was significantly lower than that of white residents. White Pennsylvanians, for example, are vaccinated at quadruple the rate of Black Pennsylvanians.
In part, this is because Black Americans lack the same access to vaccines that white Americans have been provided with. A study by NPR found that “in 23 of the nation's urban counties… Black residents were less likely than white residents to be within a mile of a site that could potentially distribute vaccines.” This poses a special challenge for poorer Black residents who cannot afford transportation or cannot leave work to travel a further distance.
Another major factor that contributes to the inequity in vaccine distribution is the distrust of government perpetuated by centuries of medical experimentation. In the 19th century, for example, James Marion Sims--a physician and slaveholder--experimented on Black women under the racist and wholly inaccurate idea that Black people cannot feel pain. The women on whom Sims operated were not given anesthesia and did not explicitly consent to the agonizing procedures which Sims put them through. He is now revered as the “Father of Modern Gynecology,” despite his disgusting violation of human rights during the four years of cruel experimentation.
In 1932, the United States Public Health Service devised an experiment called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” in which they documented the lasting effects of syphilis on 600 poor black men--399 with syphilis and 201 without. The government lied to the participants, only disclosing that they were being treated for “bad blood,” when, in reality, they were given placebos. These men were denied treatment by the U.S. government, even after penicillin was confirmed to be a safe cure.
Medical experimentation is not only a thing of the past: in 2020, a whistleblower brought forth allegations that an ICE detention center was forcefully sterilizing immigrant women through nonconsensual hysterectomies and other gynecological procedures. These allegations follow a long pattern of eugenics targeting marginalized women in the United States.
As a result of the American government’s violation of their trust, many Black Americans choose not to vaccinate themselves against COVID-19: the Pew Research Center found that only 42% of Black respondents would get the COVID-19 vaccine today if they had the option, compared to 60% of all Americans.
What’s the solution in our community? “As the state government works to make more vaccine doses available to New Yorkers, it is really important that we proactively address communities of color and make it as easy as possible for people to be vaccinated,” said Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, representative for Rockland in the New York State Senate, in response to my question about equity issues surrounding vaccine distribution. “I’m happy that in Rockland, these efforts are beginning to pay off. Last weekend there was a ‘pop up’ vaccination clinic run at the MLK Center in Spring Valley, which vaccinated 250 seniors who had been recruited by the Spring Valley NAACP and local churches. I have asked the Department of Health to conduct additional vaccination clinics in underserved areas in our district such as Spring Valley and Ossining and to open a full-time state-run vaccination center in Rockland which will make it much easier here for people in all communities to get access to the vaccine without needing to travel across the bridge to Westchester.”
While we cannot coerce or convince those who are understandably hesitant, it is vital that we distribute the vaccine equitably in order to reduce the harmful impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color.