US Data Reveals Racial Gaps In Monkeypox Vaccinations
The Biden administration claimed on Friday that there is enough monkeypox vaccine on hand right now, but health experts claim that some of the people who most need the vaccinations aren’t getting them.
Racial Differences In Monkeypox Vaccinations According To US Data
The Biden administration claimed on Friday that there is enough monkeypox vaccine on hand right now, but health experts claim that some of the people who most need the vaccinations aren’t getting them.
Despite making up one-third of cases in the US, Black people only received around 10% of doses of the monkeypox vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The most complete information to far on who has received the two-dose immunizations comes from the latest data, which come from 17 states and two cities. Several states and cities had previously found similar inequalities.
The majority of monkeypox cases in the US have been men who have had sex with other men, but officials have emphasised that anybody can contract the virus.
Experts provided a number of explanations for the discrepancy. It could be connected to the locations and methods used for providing and advertising shots.
Perhaps some Black men lack faith in medical professionals and government public health initiatives. They might also be reluctant to admit they have the condition or that they have a higher chance of getting it.
According to Dr. Yvens Laborde, director of global health education at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, the gap echoes inequalities observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when particular racial groups accounted for a disproportionately large share of cases but a smaller fraction of those initially receiving vaccinations.
With monkeypox, he warned, “If we’re not vigilant, the same thing will happen here.”
According to information now available, Black men appear to make up a greater percentage of monkeypox cases, according to Caitlin Rivers, a Johns Hopkins University expert on the administration’s handling of epidemics.
She declared, “This is a problem that is not going away.
The Biden administration said on Friday that it has shipped enough monkeypox vaccine to give the first of two doses to the population most at risk for contracting the disease.
There are 1.6 million men who have intercourse with other men, according to estimates, but the CDC does not know how many of them are black.
By the end of the following month, the administration expects to have enough for second dosages.
Health officials approved a plan earlier this month to allow the injection of lower doses of the vaccine into skin rather than muscle, which has helped stretch supplies.
The government claims that it has now despatched enough vaccine for at least 1.6 million doses using this new method, which calls for around one-fifth the standard amount.
Only 14 of the 67 jurisdictions have used enough vaccine, according to the government, to request additional from the federal stockpile.
Health officials, according to some experts, need to ensure that Black men have more access to immunizations, testing, treatment, and other forms of information and support.
Due to the voluntary nature of releasing such information, the government had not previously reported on the demographics of vaccine recipients. The CDC has urged states and select sizable cities to share the information.
Out of more than 1 million tablets sent, the figures made public on Friday include data on approximately 208,000 doses that had been administered as of earlier this week. Not all recipients’ age, sex, racial, or ethnic information was accessible.
However, the data indicates that, based on the information that was available, almost half of vaccine recipients were white and approximately a quarter were Hispanic. 10% of the population were Asian, and 10% were Black. 94% of the population were men, while 6% were women.
—More than half were in the 25–39 age range.
According to figures from Georgia, North Carolina, New York City, and Washington, D.C., there are similar inequalities across the country. Black men made up the majority of cases in all four locations, while they made up a lesser share of vaccine recipients.
In some regions of Africa, where rats and other tiny animals attack people, monkeypox is endemic. Before May, when cases started to appear in Europe and the United States, it wasn’t thought of as a disease that spread quickly among people.
More than 45,000 cases have been documented in nations that have never previously seen monkeypox.
More than 16,000 infections are present in the US, the most of any nation. In the US, men account for roughly 98% of cases, and around 93% of those men reported recent sexual intercourse with other men. Although there have been no confirmed deaths in the US, there have been in other nations.
Officials claim that skin-to-skin contact has been the primary method of virus transmission, but they caution that alternative methods, such as touching linens used by someone who has monkeypox, are possible.
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