Study finds key differences in COVID-19 vaccination rates by race, ethnicity and borough at NYC schools

For the greater than 1 million youngsters attending New York Metropolis public colleges, the chance of receiving COVID-19 vaccines trusted their race and ethnicity, and the borough wherein they reside.

Within the first printed evaluation of school-level vaccination information, colleges with majority Asian college students had the very best vaccination charge for COVID-19 at 66.2 %, adopted by majority Hispanic colleges at 53.5 %, based on new analysis from NYU Grossman College of Drugs, Syracuse College, the College of Delaware, and the New York Metropolis Division of Well being and Psychological Hygiene. Lagging furthest behind in COVID-19 vaccination charges had been colleges attended by majority White and Black college students, at 44 %, whereas colleges in Staten Island had decrease vaccination charges, on common, than in every other borough.

The analysis, printed on-line September 15 in JAMA Community Open, examined information from greater than 1,500 New York Metropolis colleges with a median of 980 college students. The analysis crew discovered that vaccination charges diverse considerably by borough, starting from the very best in Manhattan (59.7 %) and lowest in Staten Island (38.6 %). Moreover, the researchers discovered that middle-high colleges had been extra extremely vaccinated (64.9 %) than elementary colleges (38.8 %).

When damaged down additional, the info confirmed that whereas majority Asian colleges had the very best vaccination charges no matter borough, majority White colleges in Manhattan (61.9 %) and Brooklyn (49.1 %) had been extra extremely vaccinated than majority White colleges within the Bronx (34.1 %), Queens (28.5 %), or Staten Island (25.4 %).

Whereas comparable information have been examined for adults, we don’t but have a agency sense of how race and ethnicity affect vaccination for youngsters. Our new work finds that whereas among the patterns seen in adults are current in youngsters (excessive vaccination charges amongst Asian populations), there are giant variations throughout numerous geographies of even a single metropolis. Understanding these variations, together with how coverage and programmatic actions can deal with them, is necessary future work.”

Brian D. Elbel, PhD, MPH, research lead investigator, professor, Departments of Inhabitants Well being and Drugs, NYU Grossman College of Drugs

In keeping with the investigators, the research has numerous limitations. These embody a school-level method to accumulating vaccine information, in addition to the likelihood that information on college students receiving vaccinations exterior of New York Metropolis could also be lacking.

One other limitation, acknowledged by Dr. Elbel, pertains to the broad categorization of faculties by majority race and ethnic group. Additional disaggregation by smaller ethnic subgroups was not doable given the analytic method and information sources. For instance, whereas Asians and Pacific Islanders make up 14 % of New York Metropolis’s inhabitants, there’s a excessive diploma of heterogeneity throughout ethnic teams mixed below the umbrella of Asian. This lack of knowledge disaggregation for Asian or Hispanic ethnic subgroups might masks vaccination disparities inside these communities.

In keeping with the researchers, future evaluation should study the above traits utilizing individual-level information that features private attitudes about vaccines, in addition to the social, structural, and political components that affect vaccination charges amongst youngsters to find out what insurance policies or packages can higher deal with gaps in vaccine uptake.