KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The largest numbers of Kansas City residents who have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine live in ZIP codes that are overwhelmingly white, according to city health department numbers and census data.
That’s despite widespread knowledge that people of color are disproportionately harmed by the virus because of existing social inequities.
The ZIP code with the highest number of Kansas City residents who have been vaccinated — at 4,497 — is the 64114 ZIP code, according to the latest figures from the Kansas City Health Department.
The area is 82% white, while the city as a whole is about 57% white.
Since the vaccine was authorized in December, equity in distribution has been a major concern among public health officials in Kansas City and nationwide. In addition to barriers to access, public health officials worry that deep-seated mistrust will prevent some from taking the vaccine.
That’s a concern especially because Black and Hispanic residents are more likely to die from COVID-19, according to the city health department.
So far, of the 10 ZIP codes in the city with the largest number of people, the top eight are 73% to 95% white.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said the state’s allocation plan, which distributes more than half of the doses to hospitals, has created inequities for those who don’t have access to primary care physicians or hospital systems.
“It makes me angry that we’re being so incredibly apparently unfair,” he said during a phone interview Wednesday.
Ranking fourth for the highest number of vaccines is the 64113 ZIP code. It is 95% white and has one of the lowest case rates in the area.
“It does not surprise me that in 64113, neighborhoods on the southwest corridor near some of our ritziest homes and clubs, you see this sort of discrepancy,” Lucas said.
Rounding out the top 10 is 64131, which is 47% white and where 2,611 people have been vaccinated. The health department said its numbers include shots by all vaccinators: hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, long-term care facilities and other sites.
Several factors impact those figures, including the total population, the age and occupation of residents who may be in a priority group, and vaccine hesitancy.
Jeron Ravin, the CEO of Swope Health, said equity only takes place with intentional decision-making.
“You’re seeing the vaccine distribution and it’s divided,” Ravin said. “The places with the most resources tend to be the healthiest and tend to have the most access to a vaccine through a provider or a hospital system.”
Barriers to the vaccine, he said, are more likely to impact communities that are already at a higher risk for contracting the virus.
The Unified Government Public Health Department said it is working to make vaccine access more equitable. The Wyandotte County health agency partnered with the University of Kansas Medical Center to create a vulnerability index which prioritizes ZIP codes where residents do not have insurance and where there have been the highest number of coronavirus cases.
Last week, the health department said those eligible in ZIP codes 66101, 66102 and 66105 would be given highest priority.
On Tuesday, Lucas announced that at-risk residents in six ZIP codes east of The Paseo will be eligible for the vaccine through a partnership with Walmart and the YMCA. The program will vaccinate more than 3,500 people who live in those areas over the next six weeks.
The effort is being assisted by the city’s Vaccine Task Force, which was formed earlier this month and will make recommendations to the City Council on March 4.
“For many Kansas Citians — particularly in our Black and brown communities — the rate at which we are able to offer vaccines is the difference between life and death,” Lucas said in a statement about the task force.
“I have directed the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force to begin meeting immediately and to work with each other and their respective regional leading institutions to provide a transparent plan to most quickly and equitably inoculate our community, with particular emphasis on communities and ZIP codes that have been most devastated by the pandemic.”
However, Lucas said again on Wednesday, the task force is constrained by not only a limited supply, but the state’s allocation of that supply.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson posted Tuesday on social media that “fair and equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine has been a top priority of our plan since it was developed in October.”
While the urban regions of Kansas City and St. Louis comprise 60% of the state’s population, they have received 55% of the vaccine doses.
Across the metro, 138,130 cases have been reported including 1,977 deaths. Of those, 36,606 cases and 513 deaths have been identified within the city.
