AARP: What’s Race Got to Do with Getting your COVID-19 Vaccine? (February 17, 2021)

The latest data analyzed by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) shows a national pattern of African Americans and Hispanics receiving fewer vaccinations compared with their share of COVID-19 cases and deaths, as well as with their total population. Both Black and Latino Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to die from complications of COVID-19, at every age, and Black people are dying from COVID at roughly the same rate as white people more than a decade older. The reason for this is long-standing health inequities caused by racism. While the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the issue of health inequities, it also may be the clarion call our nation needs to institute change, says Gelila Selassie, a staff attorney at the national nonprofit legal advocacy organization Justice in Aging. These changes include increasing access to home and community-based services, bridging the digital divide, and building trust in the health care system.