While healthcare workers received priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine, large inequalities exist among those being vaccinated, according to a new survey from the COVID States Project.
Men were more likely to already be vaccinated and have lower levels of vaccine hesitancy than women. Clinicians with higher levels of education and income were also more likely to be vaccinated.
Researchers said a 50-year-old white male physician who practiced in the Northeast and earned more than $200,000 annually had a 45 percent chance of being vaccinated. For a 45-year-old female nursing assistant in the South who earned less than $50,000 annually, this percentage fell to just 6 percent.
The analysis does not account for variations in vaccine access, which could affect these discrepancies, researchers said.
The COVID States Project is a joint effort by researchers at Boston-based Northeastern University; Boston-based Harvard University; Brunswick, N.J.-based Rutgers University and Evanston, Ill.-based Northwestern University. The research effort entails an ongoing national survey to track Americans' opinions and behaviors during the pandemic.
The latest iteration of the survey, published as a preprint Feb. 19, is based on responses from 1,797 U.S. healthcare workers collected between Dec. 16, 2020, and Jan. 11.
To view the full report, click here.
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