Wyandotte County Vaccine Equity

Back in May, 2021, about 241 per 1,000 Black Kansans and 120 per 1,000 Native American Kansans had been vaccinated, compared to approximately 338 per every 1,000 white people.

To address these disparities in vaccination rates, Governor Laura Kelly convened the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Task Force, a group consisting of leaders across diverse organizations, including academics, community organizers, physicians, nurses and faith leaders, as well as representatives from state government.

The Kansas COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Task Force included members of the Wyandotte County Health Equity Task Force (HETF), which formed in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic. The mission of the HETF is to make sure that health resources in Wyandotte County, including COVID tests and vaccines, are accessible to historically underserved populations. The HETF works together to inform the Unified Government of Wyandotte County Public Health Department on how to best implement programs in response to COVID that address health disparities in marginalized communities. HETF Members that served on the  Kansas COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Task  Force include:

• Andrea Perdomo-Morales – Vibrant Health
• Broderick Crawford – NBC Community Development Corporation
• Allen Greiner – Wyandotte County Health Officer
• Erica Andrade – El Centro
• Mang Sonna – Bethel Neighborhood Center
• Mariana Ramirez – Juntos Center for Advancing Latino Health
• Nicole Garner – Unified Government Public Health Department
• Tony Carter – Salem Missionary Baptist Church

The efforts of the Kansas COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Task Force were included in the  Governor's Commission on Racial Equity & Justice 2021 Report . Their recommendations include:

1. Provide COVID-19 vaccines and treatment to uninsured individuals in exchange for 100 percent federal matching rate for these services.
2. Provide grants to trusted partners and community-based organizations that could both educate people about the importance of data collection and collect data at vaccination sites.
3. Utilize culturally competent messaging about vaccine efficacy and availability. Make sure materials and communications are available in a variety of languages.
4. Permit Medicaid enrollees to use the Medicaid Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) benefit to access transportation to get vaccinated. Work to ensure this benefit is easily accessible.
5. Develop a strategy for reaching people who are confined, using existing home visiting infrastructure, such as medical house calls, visiting nurses, or even programs like Meals on Wheels, can help reach this population.
6. Identify strategies to distribute vaccines to the most impacted communities.
7. Employ phone banking, canvassing and municipal emergency alert systems or reverse 911 infrastructure to notify people of vaccine availability.
8. Set up partnerships with Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and schools that reach targeted populations to conduct neighborhood-based vaccination clinics.

The HETF continues to collaborate with the Unified Government Health Department, community organizations, and clinical partners to make COVID-19 testing and resources more available to underserved populations.

As the pandemic evolves and resources shift, there are opportunities for Wyandotte County to take action on the Kansas Vaccine Equity Strategies:

• Bring testing and vaccination sites closer to underserved areas.
• Translate documents into multiple languages, including Spanish, Burmese, and Nepali.
• Coordinate door-to-door canvassing with community health organizations.
• Use data to coordinate partners to develop a neighborhood-based clinic response.

The map below uses Census Tracts to highlight the areas that are the most densely populated with unvaccinated individuals that are 5 years old or older (those who are currently eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine). The two maps below compares data from February (left) and May (right), 2022.

The map below uses Census Tracts to illustrate the percentage change of unvaccinated individuals ages 5 and older (those eligible for the vaccine). between February and May of 2022. The number indicates the percentage decrease: a -7 indicates that the number of unvaccinated individuals fell by 7 percent in that census tract.

The Unified Government of Wyandotte will begin to shift its COVID-19 response efforts to better serve Wyandotte County residents in 2022. This includes a shift from a singular mass testing and vaccination site to a neighborhood-based clinic location approach.

Working alongside neighborhood, community health, clinical, and safety net clinic partners, the UG will support efforts that make testing and vaccinations more accessible to neighborhoods that have the highest density of unvaccinated individuals that are eligible for the vaccine (ages 5 and older).

The areas below reflect ten neighborhoods/areas - in no particular order - with some of the highest densities of unvaccinated individuals in Wyandotte County.

PLEASE NOTE The data included below is from April, 2022. These locations will change as rates of vaccination change within Wyandotte County.