The disparate impact of age-based COVID-19 vaccine prioritization by race/ethnicity in Denver, Colorado
•Rates of COVID-19 hospitalization and death are higher among communities of color.•Differences in COVID-19 outcomes by race/ethnicity are greater at younger age groups.•Fewer percentages of Black and Latino COVID-19 outcomes met vaccine prioritization criteria.•Age-based vaccine prioritization poli...
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Published in | Health Policy OPEN Vol. 3; p. 100074 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Netherlands
Elsevier B.V
01.12.2022
The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V Elsevier |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | •Rates of COVID-19 hospitalization and death are higher among communities of color.•Differences in COVID-19 outcomes by race/ethnicity are greater at younger age groups.•Fewer percentages of Black and Latino COVID-19 outcomes met vaccine prioritization criteria.•Age-based vaccine prioritization policy systematically advantaged White residents in Denver.
COVID-19 vaccines are an effective tool in preventing severe disease. Most states used an age-based prioritization for vaccine rollout. We examined the impact of a primarily age-based prioritization policy on reductions of severe disease in different racial and ethnic groups. We calculated age-specific rates of COVID-19 hospitalization and death by race/ethnicity in Denver, Colorado. To assess potentially averted hospitalizations and deaths by race/ethnicity, we then applied the first three phases of Colorado’s primarily age-based vaccine rollout criteria to historical 2020 COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in Denver, Colorado. In the first 3 phases, 40% (1403/3473) of hospitalizations and 83% (503/604) of deaths occurred among those meeting age and long-term care facility criteria and could have been averted. Impacts varied by race/ethnicity with only 28% (440/1587) of hospitalizations and 74% (131/178) of deaths averted among Hispanic or Latino residents, compared to 57% (619/1094) of hospitalizations and 92% (252/274) of deaths among non-Hispanic White residents. We demonstrate using local data and policy that early age-based prioritization decisions disproportionately promoted reductions in severe disease among non-Hispanic White residents irrespective of COVID-19 risk in Denver, Colorado. These findings suggest that more equitable future vaccine prioritization policies, which lead with a goal of reducing health disparities through prioritizing susceptibility to adverse health outcomes rather than overall population-based cutoffs, are necessary. Our results have implications for future vaccination rollouts in limited vaccine resource conditions. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2590-2296 2590-2296 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.hpopen.2022.100074 |