With the expansion of the state’s mass vaccination sites and the emergency authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine late last week, Maryland is preparing to ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination efforts over the next few weeks. But even as it does, the state is reckoning with inequities in the rollout of the vaccine thus far, with white Marylanders receiving nearly four times as many doses of vaccines as Black residents.
Gov. Larry Hogan said at a news conference last week that Baltimore City had received more vaccines than it was “entitled to,” drawing the ire of many city leaders.
“We do not have equitable access to vaccine doses. I think our citizens in Baltimore know a dog whistle when they see one,” Mayor Brandon Scott said.
Here’s what recently released city and state vaccination data shows us about racial and geographical gaps in who has gotten the vaccine.
White residents outpace other races in majority-Black Baltimore
In Baltimore City, 31,417 of the of the 72,090 residents who have received the first dose of the vaccine as of March 1 were white. In comparison, 24,390 have been Black. While the racial breakdown of the residents who are eligible for the vaccine is unclear, Black people account for about 62% of the city’s population.
Only 2,238 Hispanic or Latino residents in the city had received one of the 72,090 first dose vaccinations given to Baltimore City residents through March 1, according to the city health department dashboard. In Maryland and Baltimore, Latino residents have been one of the hardest hit populations by the coronavirus.
Most vaccinations administered in the city aren’t going to Baltimore City residents
Part of the inequity stems from the fact Baltimore City residents received less than half of the first dose COVID-19 vaccinations administered in the city between Dec. 15 and Feb. 25, according to Maryland Department of Health data provided by Mayor Brandon Scott’s office.
That includes the hospitals, pharmacies and city’s two mass vaccinations sites, which are open to all state residents.
The geographic spread of the city’s doses likely reflects that many of the health care workers and first responders prioritized first for vaccination don’t live in the city. As of March 1, 12.1% of Baltimore City residents had received a first dose of the vaccine.
Few vaccines from Six Flags site going to Prince George’s County
At the state’s longest running mass vaccination site, at Six Flags in Prince George’s County, 33.4% of vaccinations given — or 10,603 — have gone to Montgomery County residents, according to data released at the Maryland Senate Vaccine Oversight Workgroup committee meeting on Monday. Sixty percent of Montgomery County residents are white.
After Montgomery County, which alone represents a third of residents vaccinated at the Six Flags site as of Feb. 27, Anne Arundel County residents make up the second highest number of vaccinations at the Six Flags site with 5,286.
Prince George’s County residents — 64.4% of whom are Black — only make up 11.2% of residents vaccinated at the site, despite the drive-through site being located in their county.
Lawmakers at the committee meeting said those figures underscore the vaccine rollout’s inequities, which prioritizes people with cars, internet access and digital skills rather than people from rural and low-income communities.
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The state has not provided similar data from two other mass vaccination sites, at the Baltimore Convention Center and M&T Bank Stadium, despite repeated requests from The Sun.
Officials announced Monday that the Baltimore Convention Center would begin to prioritize appointments for residents in six Baltimore City ZIP codes — 21215, 21216, 21217, 21213, 21218 and 21205 — with high rates of poverty, unemployment and COVID-19 cases.
Across the state, racial demographics correlate with vaccination rates
Baltimore City, Charles County and Prince George’s County — all majority-Black jurisdictions — had the lowest percentages of both people who had received the first dose of the vaccine, as well as those who are fully vaccinated with both doses.
Mike Powell, a staffer from the Office of Program Evaluation & Government Accountability assigned to the Senate Vaccine Oversight Work Group, also noted at the meeting Monday that these three jurisdictions had the lowest number of people 65 and older.
Counties with higher percentages of residents who identified as white were also more likely to have higher percentages of the population who had received the first dose of the vaccine, whereas counties with higher percentages of residents who identified as Black or Hispanic were more likely to have lower percentages of the population who had received the first dose of the vaccine, Powell said.
Baltimore Sun reporters Colin Campbell and Hallie Miller contributed to this article.