The U.S. will fall short of the Biden administration's goal to have 70% of American adults receive at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine before July 4.
Nearly 67% of adults in the U.S. had done so as of Friday morning, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 59% of adults in the country are fully vaccinated, including over 61% of adults in California.
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Yet there are disparities within the state that speak to why the U.S. fell short of the White House’s goal, with vaccine access still not wholly equitable.
All California residents who are at least 12 years old are eligible to be vaccinated, following CDC guidance. Twelve-to-49-year-olds comprise 59.1% of the vaccine-eligible population in the state, according to California Department of Public Health data, yet they’ve received just shy of 53% of administered vaccines.
There have been racial disparities, too. For instance, Black and Latino residents comprise 45.1% of the state’s vaccine-eligible population. But they’ve received fewer than a third of the administered doses in California.
Meeting people where they are can help bridge those gaps, according to Dr. Gypsyamber D’Souza, an epidemiology professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"There are people who are not opposed to getting vaccinated, and it hasn't been convenient or (there) hasn't been a reason to get vaccinated yet," D'Souza told KCBS Radio this week. "And for that group, I think there's a lot that can be done in terms of making vaccination easy so they don't have to take off work, don't have to go to a centralized site, (they) can get it at a pharmacy at their doctor's office. Or, even more conveniently, efforts to have vaccination out in the public where people are, whether that is at a religious setting, at a community sports event."
D’Souza mentioned "other incentives" and "fun prizes" as "an important tool," which California has tried with its various lotteries for vaccinated residents and gift cards for those who aren’t. A Los Angeles Times analysis determined California experienced a 33% increase in administered doses in the week after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s incentives in late May.
The U.S. has also had to contend with vaccine hesitancy and outright skepticism.
In Morning Consult’s latest poll, 12% of the 38,000 American adults surveyed were uncertain about getting vaccinated. Another 19% said they were unwilling.
D'Souza said she's hopeful some who are hesitant about the vaccine will ultimately choose to get vaccinated, especially as more data is released proving their general safety and efficacy. She also predicted that a vaccine will receive full authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration "in the coming months," rather than emergency authorization currently assigned to the Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
In the meantime, D'Souza said vaccinated people sharing their experiences and reasons for doing so with friends and family who haven’t been could go a long way toward ending plenty of people’s pause about the vaccines.
"(It's) about getting information from people you trust, really," D'Souza explained. "And not everyone is going to make the same choice, but we have a vaccine that works really well that prevents a very serious illness that is still a real threat in our society, and I think the more people we can get the message to about what your personal experience has been getting vaccinated and why you chose to do it, getting those voices from trusted sources is really important."
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