CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - In Nevada - one of six U.S. states in which a majority of the population is non-white - a disproportionate number of coronavirus vaccine doses have gone to white residents. The disparities shown in county-level data prompted Gov. Steve Sisolak to rebuke local health officials on Friday and announce a new plan to ensure equity in vaccine distribution.
As part of what Sisolak called an Equity and Fairness Initiative, state immunization officials will track vaccine distribution in southern Nevada and file reports to the state’s pandemic management task force on whether Nevada is living up to a promise made in its vaccination playbook: to distribute doses in an equitable manner.
“I do not blame those that have been offered a vaccine for taking that opportunity. The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of those in leadership positions. They know better. They have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of the playbook,” Sisolak said in a YouTube video released Friday morning, in which he didn’t specify which officials he was referencing.
Nevada is not among the 23 states that release vaccination rate data broken down by race and ethnicity. State health officials have said since December that they are working to release the data to the public in a digestible fashion - a process they said was still underway on Friday.
Both Clark and Washoe counties - home to Las Vegas, Reno and roughly 89% of Nevada’s population - have released figures on the race and ethnicity of residents vaccinated since doses arrived almost two months ago.
In Clark County, Hispanics make up roughly one-third of the population but account for 10% of doses administered. Black residents make up roughly one-eighth of the population but account for 4% of doses given as of Wednesday. In Washoe County, In the Reno-Sparks area, people who identify as Hispanic or Latino make up 25% of the population, but have only been given 11% of doses so far, county Health District Officer Kevin Dick said earlier this week.
Sisolak said he was alarmed at what he characterized as an equity crisis in Clark County and referred to data from the Southern Nevada Health District that showed the Nevada zip codes with the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases have the lowest number of doses administered.
The state’s data has been provided to several media outlets. But officials said they needed to conduct further review before releasing it to the broader public. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for the report.
“If we if we share data out-of-context, then it can present a picture to our public that’s not accurate. The team is working really hard now on accuracy and context,” Nevada Health Department deputy administrator Julia Peek said.
The objectives of the initiative will be to “clarify prioritization lanes, support fair access to vaccines through site selection, and equitable allocation across communities,” according to a news release announcing the program.
In light of early signs of uneven vaccination rates and inconsistent rollouts, other states, like California, centralized vaccination decisions previously delegated to local health districts.
Nevada officials said last week they did not intend to centralize vaccination efforts and the initiative’s focus will be primarily oversight, rather than decision-making.
“Every time a group is allowed to be vaccinated who is not eligible, those doses are being taken away from someone’s Grandma or Grandpa - or a frontline worker who has been showing up every day throughout this pandemic,” Sisolak said, blaming unnamed southern Nevada officials’ disregard for the state’s vaccination playbook as cause for the inequitable distribution.
The governor’s spokeswoman, Meghin Delaney, did not answer questions on Friday about what officials Sisolak referenced in the video and what violations of the playbook he alleges.
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Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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