Andrew Yang Blasts Staggering Racial Inequality in NYC Vaccine Distribution Following Release of Demographic Data

“If anyone doubted the degree to which COVID-19 has not only proven, but exacerbated, the deep inequalities in our healthcare system, the latest data from DOHMH are a scathing indictment of how broken the system is.

“When nearly a quarter of New York City’s vaccine supply is going to non-City residents, the system is broken. When 48% New Yorkers who are getting the vaccine are white, while just 26% are Black and Hispanic, the system is broken.

“The simple fact is, our vaccine operation has been woefully inadequate -- this latest data just shows how poorly. Vaccination distribution is the key not only to protecting millions of lives, but also to reopening our economy. Countless sites sit empty while New Yorkers who are eligible to get vaccinated sit at home because the appointment system is scattered and ineffective.

“We need to reimagine the way we approach healthcare in New York -- where Black and Brown New Yorkers are dying from COVID at twice the rate of their white neighbors. We live in a City where Black mothers are eight times more likely to die giving birth than white mothers, and the average life expectancy in Brownsville is a full decade less than in Midtown. A City where the infant mortality rate in East Flatbush is eleven times higher than Greenwich village. Systemic racism is the root cause of these disparities. It’s unconscionable and change has to be both bottom up and top down.

“As Mayor, I’m going to re-establish the mandate of DOHMH to ensure that ending racial health disparities is the agency’s top priority. We’re going to build the most diverse and culturally competent public healthcare system in the world, and we’re going to put those resources where they are needed most.

“In the immediate term, the City must take dramatic action now to curb the amount of our vaccine supply going to non-City residents, and there must be a plan to make sure communities of color, which have been disproportionately devastated by COVID-19 from the beginning, are the first to get vaccinated, not an afterthought.”

Early this week, Andrew Yang released his plan for Racial Equity in Healthcare Delivery as he called for demographic data around vaccine distribution to be released. To read more about his plan for Effective, Equitable Vaccine Distribution, click here.