Data paint stark picture of who’s getting vaccinated and who’s not in Pierce County
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department on Wednesday released the first preliminary data on vaccine distribution, and it showed sharply defined disparities among specific populations.
While Asian and Native American/Alaska Native populations appeared to be on track compared with their percentage of population, Black, Hispanic, those of multiple race and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander populations were not getting vaccinated at a rate matching their percentage of the population.
In Pierce County, here’s how the demographics measured up:
▪ Blacks, while representing 7.2 percent of the population, made up 3.9 percent of vaccines received.
▪ Hispanics, who represent 11.2 percent of the county’s population, made up 3.9 percent of vaccine recipients.
▪ Those listed as multiple race, representing 6.7 percent of Pierce County, made up 0.3 percent of doses administered.
▪ Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific islander, 1.6 percent of the population, received 0.8 percent of doses administered.
The health department will be hosting a vaccination event at Pacific Lutheran University on Thursday to vaccinate 1,200 among those “who are currently eligible under DOH’s Phase 1A and 1B, tier 1 guidance and also experiencing to barriers to vaccination,” targeting demographic sectors currently lagging in being vaccinated, according to Karen Irwin, COVID-19 communications lead for the department, via email.
The clinic is part of a partnership with Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, MultiCare Health System, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, Tacoma-Pierce County Equity Action Network and PLU. The partners help with organizing and registering members of the community.
“Our community engagement team reached out to community partners and their networks to help people get registered for this opportunity,” said Stephanie Dunkel, assistant division director, Communicable Disease Division, in an emailed statement.
“We are using this community outreach approach to get the word of the opportunity directly to those who may experience barriers when seeking appointments through a healthcare provider or a drive-through clinic. We’re also reaching out to those who may not otherwise seek vaccination at all. As with some of the very early events for 1A only (healthcare/EMS), this approach gives people a protected space to get vaccinated.”
Similar events are planned for the future.
Dunkel added that those set to participate for the event “got word of opportunity from a trusted community messenger, and that personal relationship may help people with mistrust of government or healthcare to overcome hesitancy about getting vaccinated.”
The department offered more information on its outreach in a Wednesday blog post.
On Monday, TPCHD said it had completed the Pierce County COVID-19 Health Equity Assessment. Among the findings, compared to white Pierce County residents:
▪ Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander residents’ infection rate is four times as high.
▪ Hispanic and Black residents’ infection rate is twice as high.
“Census-tract data shows those who live in the least-advantaged areas were 50 percent to 100 percent more likely to be infected compared to those in the areas of most advantage,” Victor Rodriguez, health equity program manager for the health department, wrote in a Feb. 8 health department blog post addressing equity issues in Pierce County.
Lack of transportation, no internet access and limited English language knowledge also were identified locally as barriers in reaching residents equitably with COVID-19 updates.
Additionally, “Lack of money creates housing issues and homelessness. This leads to multiple families in one living space, motel living, increased use of shelters, and other conditions that increase the spread of COVID-19,” he wrote.
“Health inequities mean more underlying health conditions that leave people more vulnerable to infection and serious symptoms.”
State results
State health officials on Wednesday said statewide vaccine equity data also was being released and admitted that reaching some populations had been challenging for different reasons.
Secretary of Health Umair Shah at a Wednesday news briefing said the statewide report shows “that we have significant work to do and in fact, we have inequities and vaccinations for our Hispanic populations, our Black populations and multi-race racial populations in the state of Washington.”
Shah cited figures from the report, noting “4.7 percent of people who have received at least one dose of vaccine and 5.9 percent of people who are fully vaccinated are Hispanic. That’s lower than the Hispanic representation in the state population, which is 13.2 percent.
“Black and multiracial people are also underrepresented among vaccinated people compared to the overall state population. This is true both among people who have received at least one dose of vaccine and people who are fully vaccinated.
“Again, the data show us that we need an even more intentional pro-equity approach.”
Shah said a plan would soon be released “for equitable COVID-19 vaccine access with strategies to reduce the inequities we are seeing.”
One part of the disparity, Shah noted, could be attributed to how the first groups of those vaccinated, as a whole, were a less diverse population.
Solutions to reaching those who were low in turnout are complex, he said.
“When we’re talking about our Hispanic community, we know that there are linguistic issues, language issues, there may be issues around immigration, there may be issues about trust and mistrust,” Shah said.
“We also recognize that there may be a hesitation for the vaccines themselves. And we’re hearing also that there’s some information that’s going out through various social media outlets that is providing information for certain populations to wait, to hesitate, before they actually get vaccinated. So it’s really hard to pinpoint.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 4:37 PM.
