Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Impacts and Vaccinations for Children

introduction

Although children don't bear the heaviest burden of COVID-19 compared to adults, some are hospitalized, suffer long-term consequences, and even die from the disease. There is increasing awareness of how children are affected by the pandemic, especially when school returns and children under 12 are not yet eligible for a vaccination. While data remains limited, research and data available to date suggest that colored children are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and may have been less likely to have been vaccinated, reflecting the racial differences observed in the broader population. These differences can put children of color at increased risk, especially when returning to classroom school. Together, the results indicate the importance of increasing the available data to understand racial differences in the effects of COVID-19 and vaccination in children, and in efforts to reduce the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on colored people To mitigate children in the future.

Results

Differences in the effects of COVID-19 on children

Research suggests that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the health of children of color, in a way that mirrors the patterns observed in adults. Studies find that black, Hispanic, and Asian children had lower test rates compared to their white counterparts, but were significantly more likely to be infected. Black and Hispanic children were more likely to be hospitalized and more likely to have multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C (a serious and sometimes fatal condition that causes inflammation of various parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, and brain); black children due to MIS -C were more likely to be admitted to intensive care units and Hispanic, Black, Native American, and Alaskan (AIAN) children had higher death rates.As of August 31, 2021, there were nearly 4.9 million infections, over 39,000 hospitalizations, and 725 child deaths from COVID-19 under 19 years of age, which showed:

Infection rates were highest in AIAN, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPI), and Hispanic children, at over 500 cases per 10,000 people (Figure 1). White and black children had over 300 cases per 10,000 people, while Asian children had the lowest infection rate, with just over 200 cases per 10,000 people.
AIAN and Hispanic children had the highest hospitalization rates, followed by NHOPI and black children, who are two to three times more likely to be hospitalized than white children. Asian children had the lowest hospitalization rates.
There were large differences in deaths between AIAN and black children, whose death rates were 3.5 and 2.7 times higher than the rate for white children, respectively. Hispanic children also died more often than their white counterparts, while Asian children had a lower death rate. Deaths in NHOPI children were not reported due to insufficient data.

The pandemic has also negatively impacted the spiritual, social, and academic growth of children, including Hispanic and Black children bear the brunt of it these effects. A recent report by KFF Vaccine Monitor shows that half of Hispanic parents say one of their children has fallen academically behind due to the pandemic, compared to about a third (35%) of white parents who say the same thing. In addition, half of Hispanic parents (52%) reported that one of their children had difficulty concentrating on schoolwork, trouble sleeping and eating, or frequent headaches or stomach aches since the pandemic started, compared with fewer than four out of ten (40%) white parents. Black and Hispanic parents are also more likely to report that their household had a job interruption in the past year due to childcare needs and that the interruption had a major impact on their family's finances and stress levels. These findings are in line with a 2020 McKinsey analysis that black and Latin American students would experience disproportionate learning loss during the pandemic for a variety of reasons, including lack of access to quality distance learning and high-speed internet. These disproportionate effects of the pandemic can further widen the existing gaps in academic achievement among children of color.

Differences in COVID-19 vaccinations in children

Children aged 12 and over can be vaccinated against COVID-19 on May 10, 2021, while children under 12 cannot be vaccinated at this time. Ensuring equality of COVID-19 vaccinations among children is important to mitigate the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 and prevent disparities from growing in the future. Also, with children making up a significant proportion of the population and being more ethnically diverse than the rest of the population, fair vaccination in this group is key to maintaining an overall high level of immunization in the population and can help reduce population disparities Vaccination rates more general.

There is a lack of data to study Vaccination rates by race / ethnicity in children, but the data available suggest potential racial differences in vaccination in children. No federal data on child vaccinations by race / ethnicity were available as of September 2021, and only seven states reported this data. White children had higher vaccination rates than black children in all seven reporting states, although the size of these differences varied widely between states (Figure 2). The vaccination rate for white children was higher than the rate for Hispanic children in two states (Connecticut and Wisconsin), although the differences between rates were generally less than the differences between rates between white and black children. Hispanic children had vaccination rates similar or higher than white children in the remaining five states. In the five states for which we were able to calculate vaccination rates for Asian children, the rate for Asian children was higher than that for white children.

Figure 2: Percentage of Children Received a COVID-19 Vaccine Dose by Race / Ethnicity, September 7, 2021

Data from the KFF COVID Vaccine Monitor shows that Hispanic and black parents are more likely than white parents to report potential barriers to vaccination. Across all racial / ethnic groups, the greatest concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine for parents of unvaccinated adolescents focus on the potential for long-term or serious side effects in children. However, in line with adult surveys, Hispanic and black parents are more likely than white parents to cite concerns that reflect barriers to access to vaccination, including the fact that they cannot get the vaccine from a trusted location because they believe they may pay a fee have to. Pocket money or having difficulty traveling to a vaccination center. A larger proportion of Hispanic parents than white parents also say they are concerned about taking time off from work to get their child vaccinated.

Ensure vaccination fairness, if Children under 12 years the possibility of vaccination will be of particular concern given the size and racial diversity of this group. There are 48 million children under the age of 12 in the United States, nearly three times the number of teenagers ages 12-15 who were eligible as of May 2021. About half (50.5%) of children under the age of 12 are color children, including more than a quarter (25.8%) Hispanic American. Another 13.3% are blacks, 4.7% are Asian, and the remaining 6.7% are Native American or Alaskan, Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or multiracial. Some states have even larger proportions of black children.

looking ahead

Taken together, these data suggest that COVID-19 has disproportionately negatively impacted the physical and mental health, academic growth, and economic security of children of color. At the same time, the limited data so far suggests that some children of color are less likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, putting them at increased risk as the virus continues to spread and so many children return to classroom school.

The risk of exposure associated with return to classroom schooling can be mitigated by policies such as requiring face masks or vaccinations for staff and eligible students in schools, or by providing options for virtual learning. Because many of these decisions are made at the local level, there will be wide variations across the country in the implementation of these safeguards. However, some decisions are made at the state level. For example, as of September 2021, 18 states required face masks in schools, 28 states did not require face masks in schools, and 5 states banned face masks in schools. Nine states had a vaccination mandate for school workers. While most states (29) leave schooling decisions to the local level, 19 states have a requirement for face-to-face learning and 3 have a requirement for hybrid learning. These different implementation of containment policies will also have important implications for future differences in the effects of COVID-19 on children.