The Department of Veterans Affairs has fully vaccinated more than 1.5 million veterans so far, and those doses have been delivered without the hesitancy from communities leaders were expecting, including veterans of color.
Dr. Ernest Moy, executive director of the Veterans Health Administration Office of Health Equity, said the department is seeing "good uptake among all racial and ethnic groups" and by both men and women veterans so far.
While some VA facilities have opened COVID-19 vaccine access to veterans of all ages, some are still working through age-based priority groups, so much of the tracking VA has done for its vaccines is by age group. But the data so far shows that some veterans of color are even outpacing white veterans when it comes to getting vaccinated.
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In the highest priority group, veterans 75 and older, 51% of Black veterans have received vaccinations, 48% of Hispanic veterans and 42% of white veterans. In that same age group, 43% of women veterans have received vaccines and 42% of men.
Among those 65-74, Moy said 45% of Black veterans had received vaccinations, 44% of Hispanic veterans and 37% of white veterans. About 39% of women veterans in this age group had received the vaccine along with 38% of men.
For veterans younger than 65 who have received vaccinations because of health conditions that may put them at higher risk for complications from COVID-19, Moy said 21% of Black veterans have received vaccines, along with 16% of Hispanic and white veterans. Among younger veterans, about 16% of women had received a vaccination along with about 17% of men.
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"We haven't seen hesitancy emerge so far," based on that data, Moy said. "We so no reduction in uptake at this time point. There's still huge demand for vaccination. When we cut it up, we see very, very good rates across both race/ethnicity and sex."
Veterans of color, especially Black and Hispanic veterans, were also found to be at higher risk for the virus, so VA made vaccine equity a priority, officials said, including holding listening sessions with veterans months before vaccines were approved to address concerns.
"We were concerned that there might be vaccine hesitancy in younger groups -- that they might not even want to hear the information," Moy said. "We've been trying to work to make sure that they are open to receiving that information for a long time."
Veterans of color told VA officials they wanted to hear vaccine information from trusted sources, such as their doctor or other veterans and wanted the information to address tough issues including hesitancy based on past deceptions, abuses and atrocities such as the Tuskegee experiment on Black men.
"People of color have had bad experiences with research and the healthcare system in the past," Moy said. "You have to talk about it. You can't just sweep it under the carpet and pretend it's not there ... It's a hard conversation to have but you have to have it because that is still in the front of mind for many minority communities."
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That work appears to have paid off for veterans at VA with the department so far not seeing the hesitancy it expected among veterans of color.
"In communities of color we're actually exceeding what we are in the white population of America," VA Undersecretary for Health Dr. Richard Stone said. "I'm really pleased at how Black and Hispanic veterans are accepting the vaccine."
One group that has demonstrated lower vaccination rates and higher levels of vaccine refusals are "people who live in rural areas," Moy said.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough and Stone have both told members of Congress and reporters in recent weeks that rural veterans are the main concern when it comes to vaccine hesitancy at VA.
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"There's not hesitancy (among many veterans) and there needn't be hesitancy," McDonough said during a recent news conference. "We're now seeing 2 million veterans vaccinated with very little associated problems ... We have work to do on rural and highly rural veterans."
The reason for the vaccine refusal in more rural areas is so far unclear, Moy said.
"It's hard to know if the refusal is, 'I don't want the vaccine, period' or 'I don't want to have to drive to an urban area to get the vaccine,'" he said. "We think at least some of it is probably the latter."
As the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine becomes more widely available, Moy said that could help in rural areas, since that vaccine does not require the deep freezing temperatures of the Pfizer and Moderna two-dose vaccines -- making it easier to transport.
"It can just go in your regular clinic refrigerator," Moy said. "You don't need to have a special freezer."
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VA has deployed its mobile healthcare units across the country to deliver vaccines to rural and remote areas, McDonough said previously. Those mobile units have already completed 317 missions and another 31 are expected by May 1.
Moy is a primary care doctor himself and said he considers it his duty to help educate his patients about the vaccines, including concerns about long-term health effects, side effects or types of vaccines.
"My job is to give my patients the information they need to make a decision for themselves," he said. "The right decision is not always to be vaccinated. The right decision is the one that the veteran is comfortable with and is right for him and for his family. Our goal is to get information into their hands so they can make that right decision."
VA was responsible for vaccinated all 9.5 million veterans in its care, until this week when President Joe Biden signed into law the Save Lives Act, which makes all veterans, their spouses and caregivers eligible to receive vaccines from VA, even those not enrolled in VA healthcare. That means a total of roughly 33 million people VA is now required to vaccinate.
McDonough set a goal of May 1 for offering vaccines to all those now eligible under the Save Lives Act, but it will depend on increases in supply, and a new system to track the doses provided to people not already enrolled in VA care. McDonough said it may take one to two weeks to set up the system to report vaccinations for those folks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
VA is already planning to roll out pilot programs to begin getting those newly eligible for vaccines their shots. Those pilot programs will be primarily in regions where enrolled veterans are already largely vaccinated, freeing up doses for the new additions. Those areas include the Northeast, Southwest and Florida, Stone said.
Currently, VA receives about 200,000 doses of the three COVID-19 vaccines under emergency authorization in the United States so far, and has the capacity to potentially administer 400,000 to 600,000 per week, Stone previously told members of Congress.
As of March 31, VA recorded more than 1.5 million veterans fully vaccinated, along with more than 262,000 employees and more than 13,700 federal partners through the department's Fourth Mission. VA has provided at least one dose to more than 4.1 million veterans, according to department data.
VA had seen significant decreases in active COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since earlier this year and the rate of patient and staff deaths has slowed considerably. But in recent weeks, VA has recorded a surge in active cases of the virus. As of March 31, VA recorded 4,160 patients and staff actively sick because of the virus, 11,298 total patient deaths, 136 staff deaths since the start of the pandemic, and fewer than 335 patients hospitalized because of the virus. VA has recorded more than 242,800 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, including more than 206,700 cases among veteran patients and more than 19,100 cases among its staff, some of whom are also veterans.
While many VA medical centers and other facilities have expanded vaccine eligibility to veterans of all ages, the department has yet to make that a nationwide mandate, since some VA facilities cater to larger at-risk populations or have fewer vaccines on hand so far. Veterans interested in receiving a vaccine should call their local VA, officials said.
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Reach Abbie Bennett: abbie@connectingvets.com or @AbbieRBennett.
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