Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

VDH Should Show Vaccinations for Age and Race Together

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by

James A. Bacon
in

by Carol J. Bova

Jim Bacon used an infographic from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) in his recent post, God, COVID and the Rage Against the Unvaccinated showing the percent of the eligible population in Virginia with at least one dose.

What the infographic doesn’t say is the numbers are based on Virginians age 12 and up. When you look at another VDH chart by age, you see some pretty impressive numbers from age 35 and up, ranging from 71.0 to 89.9 percent.

For age 55 and up, fully vaccinated ranges from 73.2 to 83.9 percent. It’s the younger groups with lower averages.

You can see a dataset by age, locality, and partially or fully vaccinated, or a dataset by racial/ethnic grouping by locality and partially or fully vaccinated.

What you cannot see is how age relates to the racial-ethnic group numbers. There’s a huge difference in impact between lower vaccination numbers for 55+ and 12+.

I’ll send an update when VDH responds to a FOIA request for combined age/race-ethnic groups for vaccine doses.

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Comments

8 responses to “VDH Should Show Vaccinations for Age and Race Together”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    re: ” If that’s the case, Blacks are likely less vaccine-resistant than commonly portrayed in the media.” … including BR, no?

    But if actually true, not just in Va but all other states, It would seemingly be a massive error by most states and media… so a little skeptical.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Carol’s observation doesn’t fit Larry’s worldview, therefore it is wrong.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        not saying it is wrong Am asking is there a problem nationwide with the data?

        If so, pretty amazing… no?

  2. CJBova Avatar
    CJBova

    VDH just responded: The record does not exist.
    Surprise, surprise.

    1. vicnicholls Avatar
      vicnicholls

      I get a boatload of that from the VDH and the Governors’ office and … you get the idea.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      I am not surprised, either.

      As I am sure you are aware, there is no requirement under FOIA for a government agency or official to prepare reports or perform analyses if they do not already exist and/or have not already been performed. That is why “The record does not exist” is a common response to FOIA requests.

      Of course, this raises the question of why such analyses have not been performed, but we cannot address that through FOIA.

      1. CJBova Avatar
        CJBova

        That’s the big question. Sometimes, it does exist, but without knowing who has it or why it was performed, there’s no way to get it, and sometimes, no one in authority has had the info put together.

  3. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    Let me expand a bit on Carol’s commentary. As I highlighted in a recent post on the topic of “Driving While Black,” the average age of Blacks in Virginia is significantly younger than the average age of Whites — by some 10 to 12 years. Given the higher percentage of the elderly that is vaccinated, all other things being equal, one would expect Whites to have a higher vaccination rate than Blacks.

    This goes against the grain of considerable analysis..

    On an age-adjusted basis, Blacks might be vaccinated at the same rate — or even higher — than Whites. We won’t know for sure until Carol gets her data from VDH.

    If that’s the case, Blacks are likely less vaccine-resistant than commonly portrayed in the media. Likewise, it would be impossible to maintain the claim that statistical disparities in vaccination rates reflect “systemic racism.”

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