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COVID-19: Federal efforts to provide vaccines to racial and ethnic groups : report to congressional committees
COVID-19: Federal efforts to provide vaccines to racial and ethnic groups : report to congressional committees
Why GAO did this study. COVID-19 continues to have devastating effects on public health, serious economic repercussions, and has disproportionately affected some racial and ethnic groups. Ensuring all racial and ethnic groups have fair access to the COVID-19 vaccine is critical to reducing severe COVID-19 health outcomes and saving lives. The CARES Act includes a provision for GAO to report on its ongoing oversight efforts related to the COVID19 pandemic. This report describes, among other things, the actions CDC, HRSA, and FEMA have taken through their programs to provide COVID-19 vaccines to underserved and historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and the extent to which these programs vaccinated various racial and ethnic groups. GAO analyzed CDC, HRSA, and FEMA vaccine administration data through September 2021; interviewed agency officials and reviewed agency documentation on COVID-19 vaccine programs and published literature on vaccine administration; interviewed health officials from four selected states and representatives from six selected stakeholder groups based on several criteria, such as states’ racial and ethnic population distributions; and compared the agencies’ vaccine administration data to 2020 U.S. Census Bureau population counts. GAO provided a draft of this report to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including CDC and HRSA, and FEMA. HHS and FEMA provided technical comments, which GAO incorporated as appropriate.
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