Key Takeaways

On Tuesday, May 25, theWhite House announcedthat half of all American adults are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That means over 50% of people in the U.S. age 18 and older are at least two weeks past their final vaccine dose.

“This is a major milestone in our country’s vaccination efforts,” said Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to President Biden on the coronavirus response, during a White House reporter’s briefing on Tuesday. “The number was 1 percent when we entered office January 20th.”

Who Is At Risk of Getting Left Behind?

The biggest challenge is vaccine equity. This means getting vaccines to traditionally underserved communities, or communities where access to healthcare is limited.

“It is well understood that BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] communities are bearing the brunt of this pandemic,”Frederick Isasi, Executive Director of Families USA, said in astatement. “A vaccination strategy aimed at reducing death and illness from COVID-19 must prioritize the hardest-hit communities.”

Vaccinating BIPOC Communities Depends on Access, Not Hesitancy

Murphy says that a key component of increasing vaccine uptake in communities of color is to work directly with community leaders “both for guidance on strategy and to be the messengers in those communities.”

How Organizations Are Working Toward Equitable COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Communities Are Making Progress

The White House did report encouraging trends in vaccinating people of color during the reporter’s briefing on Tuesday.

“As we look at our national data now on race [and] ethnicity, it continues to suggest close to the majority of first-vaccine doses administered to adults in recent weeks are going to people of color,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, chair of the White House health equity task force. “And we’ve made substantial, significant progress in data collection and reporting. We’ve gone from 17 states reporting those variables in January to 48 states reporting them now… And as data quality continues to improve, we will have greater confidence as we use these data to guide and drive outreach, engagement, and resource investment.”

Nunez-Smith says a few steps can help eliminate remaining barriers to vaccination—many of whichthe Biden Administration is facilitating:

What This Means For You

The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit ourcoronavirus news page.

1 SourceVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Families USA.Equity in COVID-19 vaccines: emerging lessons from the front lines.

1 Source

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Families USA.Equity in COVID-19 vaccines: emerging lessons from the front lines.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Families USA.Equity in COVID-19 vaccines: emerging lessons from the front lines.

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