A new report from the CommuniVax Coalition has found that while progress has been made regarding equity in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, more work is needed.
Led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University, the report said that while there have been several “wins” 11 months into the vaccine campaign, there were additional steps that should be taken.
“As the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic progresses through its second year, the ongoing need to identify and implement strategies for improving vaccine equity among BIPOC communities – especially amid historic disparities in healthcare access and utilization – remains,” authors of the report, Waypoint on the Path to Health Equity: COVID-19 Vaccination at Month 11, found. “This collective assessment could help to identify successes, failures, and lessons learned for future efforts around vaccine promotion and building health equity in BIPOC communities.”
Among the “wins” were substantial funding for public health departments which allowed them to hire community health workers and other high-impact assets; health care professionals ability to deliver accurate, culturally competent, and language-appropriate information – in a nonjudgmental, ongoing conversation – to BIPOC communities; and organizations’ delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations alongside service for other needs like food insecurity, unemployment, and immigration concerns.
Among the report’s recommendations were to maintain the creative, cross-cutting COVID-19 relationships. Additionally, the report said that public financing structures should evolve to accommodate the administrative processes of community-based and faith-based organizations with deep ties with underserved groups. An equity-driven U.S. public health system requires stable and sufficient funding to succeed.