Center for Social Innovation
State data shows disproportionate inoculation figures in state and Los Angeles county, nation’s most populous.
California released figures on Monday showing the lopsided distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to date, with Black and Latino residents in the state being inoculated at significantly lower rates than other groups.
Latinos have received 15% of nearly 5m Covid-19 vaccine doses that have been administered in the state so far, according to the data, half the rate of white residents though Latinos make up the bulk of infections and deaths. Black residents have received 2.7% of the doses despite making up 6% of the state’s population.
In Los Angeles county, with 10 million residents the most populous county in the US, just 7% of Black residents 65 and older have received a first shot of the vaccine, a significantly lower rate than the 17% of white senior residents who have received at least one shot. Fourteen per cent of older Latinos have received at least one dose.
“Everyone is pretending like this is going to get done in a month or two months,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founding director of the University of California, Riverside’s Center for Social Innovation. “Now is the time to design these systems so those who are most severely impacted by Covid, in terms of cases and deaths, are those who have a fair shot at getting a shot.”