Why are Sacramento’s wealthiest areas being vaccinated more than the hardest hit?

Wealthy, white Sacramentans continue to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at a faster rate than poor residents of color, new data released Thursday by the county public health department show.

More than three months into the state’s mass vaccination effort, less than 15.8% of residents in neighborhoods hardest hit by the coronavirus — largely low-income communities of color that include Del Paso Heights, the Parkway and Florin areas — have received at least one shot.

In comparison, more than 26.6% of residents in Fair Oaks, Land Park, Arden Arcade, the Pocket and other wealthier ZIP Codes have gotten their first and sometimes second shots, county officials estimate.

The trend reflects the ongoing challenge of overcoming discrepancies in vaccine access, despite considerable effort from state and local officials to ensure the equitable distribution of doses during a pandemic defined by inequities.

“I joked and said this is the ‘water is wet’ headline, because we know based on how (the vaccine has) been rolled that of course it hasn’t been equitable,” Dr. Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist and senior director of policy at Public Health Advocates, said during a Sacramento Bee live-stream event Thursday.

County health officials acknowledged the problem, this week, saying they are making efforts now to distribute in a more equitable fashion, following state requirements. The disparities are in part a lingering result of early vaccine eligibility for healthcare workers, older residents and other job-related groups that “do not reflect our diversity in our disadvantaged communities,” said county spokeswoman Brenda Bongiorno in an email.

In an effort to overcome the inherent inequities of the early vaccine rollout, the state earlier this month announced that it would now require counties to set aside 40% of their vaccine doses for residents in the most under resourced ZIP codes of each county, as measured by the state’s Healthy Places Index.

Twelve neighborhoods in Sacramento — including North Highlands, North Sacramento, northern Arden Arcade, Parkway, Fruitridge Manor, Florin, Meadowview — were targeted by the state to receive more doses. These are largely low-income neighborhoods of color where COVID-19 hit particularly hard, where access to healthcare and transportation is more limited.

But of those neighborhoods, all but four ZIP codes were in the bottom quartile of estimated vaccination rates, according to county data, meaning fewer than 15.8% of residents have received a shot. Three ZIP codes were in the second to last quartile, meaning 15.8% to 20.7% of residents have been at least partially vaccinated. One ZIP code, 95639, which covers 335 people in the rural area of Hood, didn’t have available data.

A lack of doses and appointments, language barriers and limited internet access, among a host of other challenges, have greatly hamstrung efforts to vaccinate at-risk residents, health advocates said.

“We noticed we were getting a lot of phone calls from people who didn’t necessarily know how to use online platforms to register appointments,” said Khadija Soufi, the vaccine clinic director at Shifa Community Clinic, which began delivering shots to residents this month.

With Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Thursday that all Californians 16 and older will be eligible to receive a vaccine starting April 15, the pressure to get doses to under resourced neighborhoods will only intensify. Amid ongoing vaccine shortages, county health officials — in partnership with local healthcare systems, clinics, pharmacies, community nonprofits and more — are racing to get more vaccine clinics up and running across Sacramento.

There are two mass vaccine drive-thru sites supported by the county, one at Cal Expo and another at McClellan Park, where hundreds are given shots every day. But county officials have struggled to open a planned third such center in a south Sacramento where COVID-19 has hit especially hard.

“We are actively working on coordinating to set up a site in South Sacramento,” Bongiorno said in an email. “Please stay tuned.”

Absent that, Mike Nguy of the county health department said officials are working with “trusted messengers in the community” to get doses out with pop-up vaccine efforts, and said the goal is “to be more equitable.”

One of those pop-ups, conducted in cooperation with City Councilwoman Mai Vang, is now providing doses every Friday at the Pannell Community Center in Meadowview, with the ability to vaccinate 1,000 a week.

Vang said 90% of the people signed up for shots at Meadowview for the initial round last Friday were from Black, Asian, Latino, Pacific Islander and indigenous communities, and that about half were not fully proficient in English.

“I don’t think you see that at other vaccinations clinics around Sacramento,” Vang said. “This is one of the most linguistically diverse vaccination events in the city of Sacramento.”

The city and county relied on 14 community-based non-profit groups and churches to get the word out and get people signed up — notably, many who do not have internet access or may be hesitant to trust the government, Vang said.

“Partnering with our folks on the ground, our community-based organizations, our trusted messengers, that is how we are going to reach our hardest-to-reach communities,” she said.

This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 10:18 AM.