Barriers and Facilitators to Vaccine Equity Amidst the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout in the United States

Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Josefina Nuñez Sahr, LaRon E. Nelson, David Vlahov () and Robyn R. Gershon
Additional contact information
Rachael Piltch-Loeb: Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH), City University of New York (CUNY), New York City, NY 10027, USA
Josefina Nuñez Sahr: Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH), City University of New York (CUNY), New York City, NY 10027, USA
LaRon E. Nelson: Yale School of Nursing, New Haven, CT 06477, USA
David Vlahov: Yale School of Nursing, New Haven, CT 06477, USA
Robyn R. Gershon: Department of Epidemiology, New York University School of Global Public Health, New York City, NY 10003, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: State and local health departments were responsible for ensuring equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. This qualitative study aimed to identify the challenges, strategies, disappointments, and successes in achieving equity for hard-to-reach and at-risk populations. Using a purposive sampling strategy, 16 individuals affiliated with health departments across nine states, each holding leadership roles in vaccine distribution, were interviewed between late 2021 and mid-2022. The key factors promoting vaccine equity included (1) inviting community members to serve on vaccine advisory groups to participate in decision-making; (2) utilizing pre-existing community relationships and spaces to facilitate the planning and distribution of the vaccine; and (3) establishing and building upon community outreach to support accessibility and uptake of the vaccine. The barriers included (1) a lack of clarity on vaccine prioritization criteria; (2) language/communication access; and (3) the initial focus on mass vaccination sites for vaccine delivery. The stakeholders also highlighted potential facilitators for increasing equity in future vaccine rollouts. Overall, community engagement emerged as a critical factor in ensuring equity during disaster response efforts.

Keywords: COVID-19; vaccine equity; community engagement; public health; healthcare access; qualitative study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/12/1588/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/12/1588/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:12:p:1588-:d:1532248

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().