Blame shifting is happening again on who is (or isn’t) vaccinated. In Texas, this has happened before with blame-shifting the pandemic to immigrants - which is entirely not true and I’ve written about that on my FB page already. The past few weeks I’ve seen GOP leaders blame-shift the pandemic to Black Americans.
Let’s look at the data to see who is still not vaccinated - and, reasons why. It’s important to get this data correct to 1) avoid blame-shifting, and 2) because the Delta variant is roaring through unvaccinated groups with ICUs filling up quicker than what we saw in January when the pandemic was really bad.
Here’s who has been vaccinated so far. You can see that the LARGEST disparity is not by race but by political affiliation - there’s a 32% differential between republicans and democrats - and only a 5% gap between white and black Americans. (KFF source here)
If we look at those that remain ‘definitely not’ regarding vaccines, the largest groups have not changed over time - Republicans and young people.
If you look by political affiliation, Republicans of all age groups have lower vaccination rates than Democrats. Look at the ‘Definitely Not’ groups - For younger people (18-49), a THIRD of Republicans said they would definitely not get the vaccine compared to 7% of democrats in the same age range.
The Pfizer vaccine is now fully approved. I know several of you likely have family members and/or friends who have been saying for months they would get the vaccine when it is fully approved. But, is that happening? The groups to still say ‘definitely not’ (compared to those who will get it or continue to wait and see) are Whites (65%), Republican (58%), and White Evangelicals (32%).
It also looks vaccine intentions now matches intentions 6 months ago. So, will the full approval matter? It will in regards to making vaccines mandated a bit easier for businesses. But, we still have an uphill battle to get people vaccinated if they were hesitant 6 months ago.
Let’s now go to Texas where the Lt Gov blamed the spread in Texas on Black Americans and democrats. (On twitter, he said 90% of Blacks in the state vote democrats - so, that’s where he is drawing that statement - FYI - that’s bad epidemiology). As a state, Texas ranks 35% in vaccinations with only 46% fully vaccinated. (Source here)
When we are comparing groups of people (like Blacks versus Whites) in Texas, you have to look at the PROPORTION rather than the total numbers. Let me show you: In Texas, Blacks comprise about 16% of the population while Whites comprise nearly 50%. So, within each group do we see a difference in vaccination rates? The answer is not significantly. There’s a SLIGHT difference with vaccination rates among Black communities in Texas - but proportionally not that different than other groups.
If you look at some of the most populous counties in Texas, we do see disparities. (Source here.) The next chart shows the disparities by Black/Hispanic zip codes versus majority White zip codes and between income levels. What do you see? Is this an access to care issue for lower income communities? The explanation is certainly multi-faceted. But the take-home point is we can’t paint a broad picture when it comes to vaccinations in any state. In other words, we can’t blame shift to groups of people - we have to look deeper at what’s really going on. Where do people live? Do they have access to care? Can they take off work to get a vaccine and a few days after if needed? What about health insurance and childcare?
To dig deeper into this data for Texas, the Texas Tribune wrote a great article here. The article also highlights some of the reasons and social issues in rural and urban areas related to vaccine uptake in Texas.
The only way to get out of this problem in the US is to accurately identify that problem without the blame-shifting. Until next time, stay safe!
-FNE
And to think I had someone tell me that this wasn’t political… So sad! Thank you, as always, for presenting the facts!
I live in a politically conservative county with a vaccination rate of only 46 percent. I noticed lately during the health board meeting one member saying we need to shift the messaging from covid health to total health and told how a family member was unable to get the vaccine because they had heart health issues, so they were doing other things to keep themselves healthy from covid. I appreciated that another board member quickly stated that the vaccine is only discouraged form people with allergic reactions and a person with heart health issues is a great candidate for the vaccine considering the effects of covid on a patient such as themselves. It seems that the confusion on who should not get the vaccine and what works to keep you safe from covid is coming internally from our county health. It's systemic.
Question: one of the loudest voices I know in my county posted a video of them calling Pfizer to show that it is a lie that the FDA approved their vaccine. The message said it is for emergency use only. This is a big talking point because many people were waiting for full approval and many people don't trust the government and think they are tricking us and are lying. I can send this person the full FDA release, but it is a government document. So my question is: is there any way to bring some truth here?