Vaccine Distribution Improving, Equity Remains A Concern: DOH

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington is administering more COVID-19 vaccines than ever before, but are those vaccines being fairly distributed?

At the Washington State Department of Health's weekly conference Wednesday, much of the news was positive. Health care providers have now administered nearly 80 percent of the state's 1,195,207 allocated vaccine doses. The Evergreen State is also averaging nearly 27,000 doses each day.

In fact, the state's vaccine output has improved so much, that the limiting factor is now vaccine supply. At the weekly DOH update, Washington Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah explained that Washington had only received 110,000 first vaccine doses last week. The DOH had requested 358,000 first doses from the federal government.

"We can give markedly more vaccines if we had the vaccine supply," Shah said.

But one new problem has arisen, one of equity. New data from the DOH shows that vaccines are not going to those who need them most: Washington's Black, Hispanic and multiracial communities, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

"The data shows us we need an even more intentional, pro-equity approach," Shah said.

According to the secretary of health, just 4.7% of Washingtonians who received at least one dose of the vaccine are Hispanic, and 5.9% who are fully vaccinated are Hispanic. Hispanic residents make up 13.2% of Washington's population.

Black and multiracial Washingtonians are similarly underrepresented, according to Shah.

The secretary of health was joined Wednesday by the Department of Health's Director of Communications and Equity, Paj Nandi, who addressed the hurdles the state has yet to overcome.

"In addition to some of the systemic inequities, including racism that is baked into the structures of government, we're also looking at factors such as low supply and also looking at vaccine hesitancy," Nandi said. "We know from our community engagement efforts that BIPOC communities and other historically marginalized groups have a lot of hesitancy and have a lot of distrust for very valid reasons."

Nandi outlined several potential equity solutions that the state is pursuing, including:

• Pushing providers to allow patients to call in and set up vaccine appointments over the phone.
• Prioritizing providers who serve disproportionately impacted communities.
• Increasing investment in trusted community messengers and organizations, to decrease vaccine hesitancy.

"There are so many access barriers we have been hearing about from community leaders and partners, over and over again," Nandi said.

Some community outreach efforts are ongoing, others will begin in the coming weeks.

Dr. Shah also says the state will be releasing a plan to improve equitable access to the public sometime later this week.

"We are committed to taking immediate action to improve our vaccine distribution efforts from an equity perspective, and ensuring equitable and culturally responsive actions, particularly for communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19," Shah said. "We will continue to make this a top priority moving forward."