Of those vaccinated in Henrico, less than 13% known to be Black or Latino

Of the roughly 36,000 Henrico citizens who had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by Feb. 1, only 12.8% (or just more than 4,600) are known to have been Black or Latino – the two groups affected most disproportionately by the virus in Henrico.

That’s according to data from the Richmond and Henrico Health District, which provided it to the Citizen Friday at the publication’s request.

By contrast, at least 41.9% (or about 15,109) of those vaccinated were white.

But there’s a significant hole in the data: 39.1% (14,100) of those vaccinated from Henrico didn’t report their race or ethnicity, so no data for them exists in the system. That’s due in part to the fact that it’s not a requirement for people to provide that information when they register for the vaccine.

Statewide, a slightly smaller percentage of Black and Latinos are known to have been vaccinated (11.6%), while about 32% of vaccine recipients did not provide their race or ethnicity.

Nationally, more than 48% of those vaccinated haven't submitted their race or ethnicity. Of those who have, only about 5% were Black, an ABC News study concluded.

RHHD officials, like their counterparts at the state and national levels, have indicated that ensuring equitable distribution of the vaccine is of critical importance, and during a Feb. 1 briefing online, they described various ways they’re doing that or planning to do it. Among them:

• prioritizing seniors 65 and older (a group currently eligible for vaccination) based first upon age and second upon race;
• prioritizing seniors in government-managed independent living facilities first, followed second by those in such facilities who are on Medicare;
• using mobile units to take vaccination clinics to congregate living facilities and the 50 or so independent senior living facilities in Henrico and Richmond (the latter effort began this week and could reach as many as 7,000 seniors);
• implementing outreach efforts to educate and register people who may not have access to the internet.

During mass vaccination events for seniors last weekend and this week, RHHD implemented another strategy to obtain demographic information from those being inoculated, RHHD Nurse Manager Amy Popovich said.

“We had multiple individuals, volunteers, whose sole responsibility it was to collect the paper screening information [from participants] and to look at it, and do a double check to make sure all of that information was there,” she said. “And if it wasn’t, they just kindly asked the participant if they would be able to fill in more of that information. It is really important to us that we collect that information.”

In Henrico, Blacks and Latinos compose nearly 35% of the county’s population but have accounted for more than 47% of its COVID-19 cases, nearly 56% of its 788 virus-related hospitalizations and nearly 42% of its 352 virus-related deaths, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

“It’s very important that when we think about our equitable distribution [of the vaccine], that we really consider what our data is telling us about our folks who are most burdened,” RHHD Health Equity Manager Jackie Lawrence explained Monday. “Social barriers are results of historic and social discrimination practices,” Lawrence said. “When folks don’t have adequate access to income or adequate access to healthcare, then when we layer that on top of a global pandemic, this is what you get. You get compounded burdens.”

The hole in the existing vaccination data makes it impossible to know whether the known percentage of Blacks and Latinos who have been vaccinated is representative of the actual percentage or not.

Another unknown: how many people from either group even want to be vaccinated.

Health officials nationally expected that minorities -- and Blacks in particular -- might be more hesitant to receive vaccination shots, given the realities of unethical medical experiments conducted on Blacks, such as the Tuskegee syphillis study. In that Alabama study that began in 1932 and continued for 40 years, Black men who participated were mistreated, not given adequate medical treatment and not given the chance to opt out.

Majority-minority areas experience high COVID case counts

Three of the four Henrico ZIP codes with the most reported COVID-19 cases in the county – 23223 (3,259), 23228 (2,311) and 23231 (1,960) also are home to large populations of Black and/or Hispanic citizens.

In the 23223 ZIP (which covers a portion of northern and eastern Henrico, generally along the Nine Mile Road and Laburnum corridors, and also some of the city of Richmond), more than 77% percent of residents are Black.

In the 23231 ZIP (Varina), nearly 60% are. And in 23228 (Lakeside), nearly a quarter are Black, and 15% are Hispanic. (Glen Allen’s 23060 ZIP code ranks third in the county for confirmed cases, with 1,962; it is about 20% Black and 5% Hispanic.)

“There are very real racial disparities showing up in the data,” Lawrence said.

Minority populations tend to have worse health outcomes generally, and with the COVID-19 virus specifically, because they tend to be more likely to work frontline jobs; live in poverty; lack health insurance; lack transportation; and lack access to healthy food than their white counterparts.

For Hispanic and other immigrants, language also can be a barrier, sometimes making it more difficult for citizens to have access to basic data and information about the virus and vaccine.

RHHD officials have made it a point to focus on reaching the minority populations however they can, Lawrence said.

“Richmond and Henrico are truly committed to this,” she said.

Several planned mobile "pop-up" vaccination events at local churches Feb. 6 and 7 were designed to target minority populations who might otherwise have had a difficult time getting shots. Health and church officials also hoped that the endorsement of participating churches and their pastors might help assuage concerns that church members might otherwise have had about being vaccinated.

Henrico has been hosting its mass vaccinations at Richmond Raceway, in the heart of a heavily Black community -- something that could mitigate transportation concerns as the process continues by allowing easy access to vaccines for many of those who are most at-risk for negative outcomes from the virus.

Said Popovich of the districts' efforts: “We want to continue to identify those gaps in our collection process and ensure that we have as much data as possible to make sure that we’re vaccinating everyone.”