Public Health & Health Science Division, ULAB

Our study aims to analyze COVID-19 vaccine administration in California based on various racial demographics using data collected from the California Open Data Portal (“California Grants Portal,” n.d). This analysis will focus on the months following the CDC’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the COVID-19 vaccines, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna (Spikevax), and Janssen (J&J). Our goal is to examine COVID-19 vaccine equity and accessibility for various racial demographic groups in California, including American Indians or Alaska Natives, Asians, Black people or African Americans, Latinos, Pacific Islanders or other Pacific Islanders, and Whites. In our research study, we found that Whites were administered all COVID-19 vaccines at a much higher rate in the early months of the CDC’s EUA in comparison to other racial demographic groups in California. In addition, another significant finding was how other racial demographic groups, including American Indian or Alaska Natives, Asians, Black or African Americans, and Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders did not reach the same level of administered COVID-19 vaccines between December 2020 to December 2021, whereas Latinos did reach that same level but only after almost a year following the CDC’s EUA, approximately around Sepetember 2021 to December 2021. Furthermore, the results of our research suggest larger societal implications regarding vaccine equity and accessibility.