Thread by @LaurenWeberHP

🚨🚨🚨 Black Americans are receiving covid vaccinations at dramatically lower rates than white Americans, according to our new @KHNews data analysis on the rollout

“We are missing the boat on equity” @MarcusPlescia @ASTHO said

From @hannah_recht and me: nbcnews.com/health/health-…

If the rollout were reaching people of all races equally, the shares of people vaccinated whose race is known should loosely align with the demographics of health care workers.

But in every state, Black Americans were significantly underrepresented among people vaccinated

Meanwhile, Black, Hispanic and Native Americans are dying from Covid at nearly three times the rate of white Americans, according to @CDCgov .

And Black and Asian health care workers are more likely to contract Covid and to die from it than white workers.

Access issues and mistrust rooted in structural racism appear to be the major factors leaving Black health care workers behind in the quest to vaccinate the nation.

The unbalanced uptake among what might seem like a relatively easy-to-vaccinate workforce doesn’t bode well.

Hesitancy among some Blacks about getting vaccinated is not monolithic, @TaisonBell said. Nurses he spoke with were concerned it could damage their fertility, while a Black co-worker asked him about the safety of the Moderna vaccine since it was the company’s first such product.

Some floated conspiracy theories, while other Black co-workers just wanted to talk to someone they trust like @TaisonBell , who is also Black.

In the most striking difference, 1.2 percent of white Pennsylvanians had been vaccinated as of Jan. 14, compared with 0.3 percent of Black Pennsylvanians.

Only 18 percent of those vaccinated in Mississippi so far are Black, in a state that’s 38 percent Black.

Many experts decried the lack of federal messaging to combat vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.

“We were late to start the planning process,” @GeorgesBenjami7 said. “We should have started this in April and May.”

And access issues persist, even among health care workers.

Members of the cleaning crew for @uvahealthnews did not have access to hospital email addresses and were not getting notified of vaccine sign-ups and messaging, @TaisonBell was horrified to learn.

Mississippi's state Health Officer @TCBPubHealth said the Trump administration shift to reward states that distribute vaccines quickly with more shots makes the rollout a “Darwinian process.”

It might be faster to administer 100 vaccinations in a drive-thru location than a rural clinic, but that doesn’t ensure equity.

“Those with time, computer systems and transportation are going to get vaccines more than other folks — that’s just the reality of it” @TCBPubHealth

“My concern now is if we don’t vaccinate the population that’s highest risk, we’re going to see even more disproportional deaths in Black and brown communities,” @drfolamay said. “It breaks my heart.”

@NBCNews @KHNews

nbcnews.com/health/health-…