Racial disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates persist as delta variant gains steam

Even as the U.S. approaches a coronavirus vaccination rate of 70 percent, racial disparities in who has gotten vaccinated persist, raising questions about how the communities of color that were hit hardest by the first wave of the pandemic will fare against the rapidly spreading delta variant.

That gap is beginning to close, but the road to an equitable distribution of vaccinations has been rocky.

It quickly became clear after the federal vaccination program began in December that vaccines weren’t reaching people who had fared worst in the pandemic, specifically Black and brown communities. Upon taking office in January, President Biden made the commitment to advance racial equity in every part of the federal government, including his administration’s ambitious national COVID-19 response and vaccination strategy.

But inadequate health care resources in minority communities, rampant misinformation about the vaccines and the country’s sordid history of medical racism have all hampered inoculation efforts among Black people and other people of color.

Delta factor: There is mounting concern that communities of color in states with low vaccination rates could be susceptible to the quickly proliferating delta variant of COVID-19 that now makes up the majority of the U.S.’s coronavirus cases. While the variant, which appears to respond to vaccines currently on the market, does not appear more dangerous than previous strains, it is more transmissible.