Opinion: NYC’s vaccine rollout has failed Black and Latino New Yorkers
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Councilmember I. Daneek Miller. Photo by William Alatriste/City Council Photography
By I. Daneek Miller
While New York City recently recorded its best week yet for COVID-19 vaccinations, clear racial disparities remain. Despite being the “epicenter of the epicenter,” communities of color like ours in Southeast Queens have received far less support and access to both COVID-19 testing and vaccines compared to other areas of the city.
COVID-19 and its disparate impact on communities of color showed the world what we already knew: the harsh realities of institutional racism equate to a lack of healthcare access and implicit bias in care that leads to far worse outcomes for people of color.
My colleagues and I in the Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus fought tooth and nail last year for the free, robust COVID-19 testing currently available throughout the city. Our fight foreshadowed the uphill battle of distributing an already scarce supply of vaccines to communities that have been historically undervalued and underserved.
Our advocacy for a vaccine rollout that prioritized the hardest-hit, most marginalized communities and essential workers began weeks before the first vaccine was administered in the city.
Working with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, we introduced legislation that called for coordination between the city and state to ensure that the most impacted communities are prioritized and the release of a real-time data dashboard to determine when, where and who is being vaccinated.
Detailed racial data on COVID-19 inoculation was only made available for the first two weeks of the vaccine rollout. It showed that Blacks, Hispanics and Latinos received only about 5 percent of vaccinations despite constituting over 50 percent of the city’s population. Data was then withheld for weeks, only to be released at the urging of legislators of color who previously advocated for the racial breakdown of COVID-19 death and infection rates.
The current numbers reflect that the hardest-hit communities continue to have some of the lowest immunization rates. In my district in Southeast Queens, which is home to many essential and frontline workers and the largest share of the city’s municipal workforce, inoculation rates range between a mere 3 to 7 percent.
Residents have been forced to wait weeks, if not months, to schedule an appointment. The cruel irony is that one in four of those who received the vaccine within five boroughs during those crucial first few weeks of availability were not New York City residents.
Even with more vaccines and testing location sites becoming available, including at York College, which is slated to open soon, the current vaccine appointment system remains woefully insufficient to reach those most at risk of complications from COVID-19, including home-bound seniors. To mitigate the disparity we have seen thus far, we must do what we know works: engaging true community-based organizations, simplifying the appointment process, and providing real solutions for at-risk populations who need the vaccine, but don’t have the time or know-how to navigate the current web-based system.
To that end, our resolution in the City Council calls upon the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, legislation that would allow local health departments to implement changes to improve the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. We’ve received a majority of support in the City Council and are working with our partners in the State legislature to create vaccine equity and improve the rollout.
One year from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and clear disparities persist in how Black, Latino, and Asian communities are allocated public health resources. In total, we’ve lost over 15,000 New Yorkers of color, thousands of them essential and frontline workers who risked the health and safety of themselves and their families to keep this City running.
If we genuinely value our essential workforce and the diverse communities that make New York City great, it must be reflected in how we prioritize them moving forward. As we are in the midst of a new reality, it is our duty to meet these challenges so that we can all get back to living.
I. Daneek Miller is the councilmember representing the 27th District in Southeast Queens including Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis, Queens Village, Cambria Heights and Springfield Gardens. He is the Chair of the Committee on Civil Service and Labor, and Co-Chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus.
