Changing the narrative: structural barriers and racial and ethnic inequities in COVID-19 vaccination
Open accessAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States. Although a promising solution of the COVID-19 vaccination offers hope, disparities in access again threaten the health of these communities. Various explanations have arisen for the cause of disparate vaccination rates among racial and ethnic minorities, including discussion of vaccine hesitancy. Conversely, the role of vaccine accessibility rooted in structural racism as a driver in these disparities should be further explored. This paper discusses the impact of structural barriers on racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake. We also recommend public health, health system, and community-engaged approaches to reduce racial disparities in COVID-19 disease and mortality.
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Inadequate efforts were made to prioritise health and safety of these workers, first in workplace precautions and later in reducing barriers to vaccine access.
“Inadequate efforts were made to prioritise the health and safety of these workers, first in requiring precautions in their workplaces, and later in reducing structural barriers to accessing vaccines when they became available.”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [279]
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The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
Sachs, J. D., Karim, S. S. A., Aknin, L., Allen, J., Brosbøl, K., Colombo, F., Barron, G. C., Espinosa, M. F., Gaspar, V., Gaviria, A., et al. (2022) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(22)01585-9 · Cited by 842 · see citing works
- Authors
- Njoku, A., Joseph, M., & Felix, R.
- Affiliations
- Southern Connecticut State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Njoku, Anuli
- ORCID
- Njoku, Anuli
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-09-20
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 18
- Pages
- 9904
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8470519
- OpenAlex
- W3201399764
- Cited by
- 164
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 19.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Keywords
- COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine uptake disparities, racial and ethnic disparities, structural racism, structural barriers, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine access, health disparities, public health interventions
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Vaccines, Ethnicity, Humans, Minority Groups, United States, Vaccination, Health Status Disparities, Healthcare Disparities, Pandemics
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