Thread by @Kit_Yates_Maths

A short thread on vaccine uptake inequality.

TL;DR - Inequality in vaccine uptake exists both as a function of deprivation and ethnicity.
The gaps between the proportions of people in different groups getting vaccinated are getting wider as the vaccine roll out goes on.

1/9

Breaking first dose coverage in the over 50s into quintiles (fifths of the population) by deprivation, there is a clear disparity between uptake in the most deprived areas (83.9%) and the least deprived areas (94.1%).

2/9

Obviously one of the quintiles has to have lowest coverage and one highest, but the clear deprivation gradient (more deprivation correlating with poorer coverage) suggests a clear link between the two.
The trend has been clear for a while, but the gap has been widening over time.

Breaking first dose coverage down by age, it's also clear to see that the gap between the most and last vaccinated deprivation quintiles is getting larger in the younger age groups as overall first dose coverage also falls.

4/9

By ethnicity, the trends we have seen so far in first dose coverage continue. White people have the highest proportion of vaccine uptake at 93% while black people have the lowest uptake at just 65%.

5/9

These disparities have become clearer as the vaccine programme continues its roll out. We really need to work hard to level-up on vaccine coverage so people of all ethnicities are afforded equal protection.

6/9

In a similar picture to disaggregation by deprivation, it's clear to see overall first coverage falls off for younger age groups and the disparity between the most vaccinated and least vaccinated groups gets larger.

7/9

The majority of these data come from the @OpenSafely project (thank you)
opensafely.org/research/2021/…
All data concern first dose coverage.

Now that second doses are being given in significant numbers it's important to see how these trends pan out in fully vaccinated people.

8/9

With thanks, as ever, to Bob Hawkins for his help preparing the charts.

\ENDS