Padilla Urges Biden Administration to Track Racial and Ethnic Data on National Vaccination Rate

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), along with seven of their Senate colleagues, in sending a letter urging the Biden Administration to include demographic data on race and ethnicity for those getting vaccinated on its national vaccine dashboard.

In addition to Padilla, Menendez and Cardin, the letter was signed by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).

"It is critical that our federal database tracks nationwide distributions of vaccines to states, territories, and tribes, and collects robust demographic information to ensure at-risk communities are being vaccinated appropriately," the Senators wrote to White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients, Acting Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Norris Cochran and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky. "Comprehensive vaccine data is crucial for helping public health officials evaluate how to efficiently and equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines across the United States. It is also a crucial tool to aid public health officials in identifying the barriers minority communities face in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and determine where vaccine hesitancy may persist."

While the California Department of Public Health recently released vaccine distribution data broken down by race and ethnicity, not all states report vaccination data specifying race and ethnicity. Just a few of weeks ago, the Washington Post reported there are significant gaps in reported data because race and ethnicity data was missing for nearly half of all vaccine recipients in the early days of vaccine distribution.

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