Experts worry a lack of data may be obscuring where to target strategies for vaccinating kids of color, who disproportionately suffer severe illness from COVID-19 but may lack access to the shot.
Just shy of a third of children ages 5 to 11 nationwide have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and a quarter are fully vaccinated, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.About 67% of kids 12 and older have received one dose, and only 57% are fully vaccinated.
But the CDC does not report children’s COVID-19 vaccination rates by race, and inconsistencies and variations remain in the ways figures are broken down and reported from state to state.
The Kaiser Family Foundation reports only seven states are releasing kids’ vaccination data by race in a way that allows for statistical comparison. Among those states, Black children generally trailed behind white children, with rates of kids from other racial groups varying.
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