Covid-19 vaccines are being administered to Black and Latino Americans at half the rate white people are receiving doses, analysis suggests.
Among 14 states whose vaccination statistics were analysed by CNN, Black and Latino Americans were being vaccinated at almost half the rate white people were.
And on average, white people were receiving Covid-19 vaccines at a rate about 2.3 times higher than Black Americans, and 2.6 times higher than Latinos, CNN said.
About 4 per cent of America’s white population has received a Covid-19 vaccine, according to CNN, compared to 1.9 per cent of the Black population and 1.8 per cent of the Latino population.
The statistics raise concerns around the United States’ vaccine roll out, which has already been criticised for administering only half the 47 million doses delivered by the US government, and falling short of previous targets.
A study published on Monday by The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) also suggested that white Americans were receiving higher shares of the vaccine doses than Black Americans, with similar patterns among Latinos.
The study also showed that vaccines are being administered to Black Americans at rates lower than their share of cases in 16 states, and then deaths in 15 states.
That comes despite the death rate among Black and Latino Americans being three times higher, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Cases rates are also 1.4 times higher among Black Americans, and 1.7 times higher among Latinos, than that of the white population.
As of Thursday, over 25 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the US, while the death toll continues to climb, passing 423,000 deaths since the pandemic began.
Many victims, according to estimates, are from the country’s Black and Latino population.
The US has delivered Covid-19 vaccine doses to around 20 million people, (or 6 per cent of the total population), while 3 million have received two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, which are approved for use in the US.
Only 16 states have published complete data on the distribution of Covid-19 vaccinations based on race and ethnicity.
US president Joe Biden has promised to deliver 300 million doses by the summer, in a bid to vaccine most American adults.
