Pittsburgh, PA, March 31, 2021 – Black Equity Coalition has released the Missing our Shot: COVID-19 Vaccine Equity in Allegheny County which sheds the light on the need for additional data, transparency, capacity, infrastructure, and data tracking issues in the Black communities within Allegheny County in regard to the COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
"The disparity between black and white lives lost during the pandemic are disproportionately alarming. A modified vaccine distribution approach would address this disparity by supplying hard hit communities with greater percentages of vaccinations. Fifty-seven weeks ago, blacks were dying at 1.5 times their white counterparts and today that number has doubled. It is critical that any approach ensures an equitable distribution of vaccines in addition to connecting the needed resources to address the ongoing comorbidity issues driving this disparity. We cannot treat one without the other." Fred Brown, CEO/President of the Forbes Fund
For more information about the Missing our Shot: COVID-19 Vaccine Equity in Allegheny County Report, please contact Ayanna King at (412) 609-4481 or go to www.blackequitypgh.org and download the Missing our Shot: COVID-19 Vaccine Equity in Allegheny County today. The full article and report can be read here.
The Black Equity Coalition (BEC) grew from a group of concerned colleagues who came together in April 2020 to discuss the disproportionate COVID-19 deaths among the Black people in comparison to White people in Allegheny County and Nationally. Whereas Blacks were being hospitalized nearly three times higher for Black people than White people across the country.
For the past 57 weeks, the BEC has been working in groups that focus on a different area, including data, community health, and community engagement. The BEC Data Working Group is responsible for developing this report and they are individuals working in public health, medicine, philanthropy, and business development, with those involved with data science, access and visualization to support shared understanding of the availability and the meaning of data as it applies to the goals of the BEC.