A Black Neighborhood in Alabama Has Yet to Get a Single Vaccine
In a nearby wealthy White suburb, the doses flow
Only a handful of U.S. states had Covid-19 vaccination rollout plans that took into account the disadvantages that minority populations face in the health-care system.
Photographer: Octavio Jones/Getty Images
More than two months into America’s vaccine rollout, a community clinic that serves the poorest of the poor on Birmingham’s majority-Black north side has yet to receive its first dose. The Alabama Regional Medical Services clinic has watched the vaccine flow elsewhere, including a pharmacy in nearby Mountain Brook, the state’s wealthiest town.
The proportion of Alabama’s White population getting the vaccine is almost twice that of Black people, according to state data. And it’s not because of the oft-repeated claim that African-Americans don’t want it, said Sheila Tyson, a commissioner in Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham. “It’s an excuse,” Tyson said. “How do they know we are turning down the vaccine if it is not offered to us?”