Federal health officials said Monday that most people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine so far are women, but have no data on the race or ethnicity of nearly half of the first nearly 13 million Americans who received a COVID-19. vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a statement from its first comprehensive review of the state of the vaccination campaign at the national level, says that at the national level, 63% of those vaccinated were women and 55% were over 50 years old. The agency’s researchers have issued a pair of reports examining the demographics of those vaccinated nationally by January 14 and the launch of photographs in long-term care institutions.
Among the data that the CDC examination was able to gather by race and ethnicity, 60% of those vaccinated identified themselves as non-Hispanic White.
The data are whiter, older and more women than the general population, although CDC researchers have warned that the groups have also given priority to photos.
The reports come as the Biden administration called on states to step up their efforts to report values.
“There are several reasons why we are already only a month and a half away from launching the vaccine. Lack of prior federal coordination, uneven launch among states, inconsistent emphasis on equity in the early days of vaccination,” Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith , head of the task force chairman COVID-19, said at a briefing Monday.
“It’s not just our statistics that are hurting. They are hurting the communities that are most at risk and have been the hardest hit,” Nunez-Smith added.
Less than half of states publicly disclose race and ethnicity data about those vaccinated, according to a follow-up tool from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The CDC report said that the reporting of race and ethnicity varies widely across the country, with 14% reporting “multiple or other” race or ethnicity, and six jurisdictions do not report such data at all.
Nationwide, the CDC says nearly 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed. More than 25 million have received at least one blow, already almost doubling the fund of Americans that the researchers analyzed.
Public health experts have warned for months that vaccine data reporting requirements are missing from a key measure to measure the progress of the immunization campaign in the communities most affected by the pandemic, especially as the effort extends beyond caregivers. and nursing homes that were a priority.
In nursing homes, the CDC report said that about 78% of residents – and only 38% of staff members – received a dose of Pfizer or Moderna by January 17.
State health officials have repeatedly expressed frustration over the launch of immunizations in long-term care facilities, which the CDC has partly blamed on vaccine hesitation and logistical challenges.
“Each vaccination clinic will go to the long-term care unit three times. And when they return for the second and third time, there are staff who accept the vaccine on those second and third visits,” said Dr. Amanda Cohn. at a CDC meeting last week.
Continuing to capture staff who did not accept the vaccine early will be really important, as we try to eliminate outbreaks and protect both staff and residents in long-term care units, he added. Dr. Cohn.