California releases much-awaited nationwide ethnicity and race data for COVID-19 Thursday, and the data shows that Blacks so far account for just 3% of all people who have received a shot.
As per the data collected by the California Department of Public Health, Whites have received nearly 34% of vaccine shots.
The data did not instantly explain the imbalance. It also showed that Latinos who have received at least one shot account for 15.8%, Asian Americans 13.1%, and multi-race 13.9%.
California – and many other states – are criticized in recent weeks for lagging in reporting data on the way vaccines are being delivered across various ethnic groups.
According to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the initial data from 17 states are already raising concerns. The report shows that the share of vaccinations among Black people is smaller than the number of deaths among Black people in all 17 states. Also smaller than their share of cases in 16 states.
A BBC analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau found that the vaccination rate in the nation’s majority-Latino and Black zip codes averaged 5%.
As per the John Hopkins University data, the U.S. has more than 27.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 480,000 deaths. More than 70 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S., according to the CDC.C
