Inequities in COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in the 9 Largest US Cities

Abstract

This cross-sectional study evaluates neighborhood-level data in the 9 largest US cities to identify inequities in COVID-19 vaccination rates.

Figure.. Association Between Neighborhood Historical COVID-19 Death Rate and Vaccination Rate

The COVID-19 death rate is per 100 000 total population, and the vaccination rate is the proportion of adults aged 18 years or older who received at least 1 COVID-19 vaccination dose. Each circle represents 1 neighborhood and is scaled according to its total population. Neighborhoods are defined as zip codes, except for Los Angeles, California, which uses a community concept at essentially the same level of aggregation (329 communities vs 300 zip codes). One neighborhood with a vaccination rate of more than 100% was omitted because of a likely data error. The 18 neighborhoods above the 98th percentile of death rates (579 per 100 000) and the 11 neighborhoods with vaccination rates lower than 10% or higher than 80% were trimmed from the plot but were included in the calculation of the line of best fit. The line of best fit controls for city and is weighted by total population. β is the slope coefficient with robust SE reported in parentheses. Data for Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas, were excluded from the plot because these cities did not report deaths by neighborhood.