Document Type
Article
Publication
Jama Health Forum
Year
2021
Citation Information
Govind Persad, Govind C. Persad, and Monica E. Peek, Fair Allocation at COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Sites, (2021), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-articles/2038.
Abstract
On February 26, 2021, the Federal Emergency and Management Agency (FEMA) announced 18 community vaccination centers in major cities capable of administering up to 6000 vaccines daily. Mass vaccination sites like these arrive amid staggering socioeconomic and racial disparities in COVID-19 vaccination. Black and Hispanic people are being vaccinated at less than half the rate of White people, despite being twice as likely to die of COVID-19. The wealth gap is similarly substantial, reaching up to a 65% difference between the wealthiest and poorest counties in Connecticut. The federal government is supporting mass vaccination sites, in part, to alleviate disparities, asserting that if sites are placed in dense urban areas then “equity is embedded” in their design.