Social Vulnerability to Credit for Many COVID-19 Health Disparities

When vaccinated, most folks see good COVID-19 outcomes. But social vulnerability gets in the way of vaccination, leading to some COVID-19 health disparities. It’s broadly accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by stark health disparities, with those experiencing the greatest social vulnerability also seeing the worst pandemic outcomes. Now, data from the Regenstrief Institute takes that a step further by demonstrating that it is that very social vulnerability that’s partly responsible for COVID-19 health disparities. The researchers proved this by showing that COVID-19 vaccine efficacy was around the same across all sociodemographics, but COVID-19 outcomes were not. That’s not because the COVID shots didn’t work as well on socially vulnerable people, study co-author Brian Dixon, PhD, MPA, stated publicly.