Restoring trust to save lives
Black and brown Americans’ hesitancy over the COVID vaccine was decades in the making.
By Yvonne Abraham Globe Columnist,Updated February 3, 2021, 6:20 p.m.
In case you missed, oh, all of 2020, our bumpy COVID vaccine rollout is providing yet another lesson on American inequality.
So far, whether those eligible can get vaccinated comes down too often to whether they have the resources — the time, the technology, the support networks — to snag an appointment. We saw that imbalance come to life at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury this week, as those who showed up for their shots were overwhelmingly white and from more affluent parts of the city.
In Massachusetts, Black residents make up 8 percent of COVID cases, yet only 4 percent of those vaccinated so far; Hispanic residents make up a whopping 29 percent of cases, but only 5 percent of those who’ve gotten the shot as of Feb. 1, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. White residents make up 49 percent of cases and 56 percent of vaccinations so far.