Health inequities are nothing new in the U.S., but the COVID pandemic has placed them in a new light. Numerous studies have reported disparities in how COVID-19 affects many vulnerable groups, often placing them at higher risk of infection, hospitalization, and death. And the inequitable effects of the disease itself are not the only cause for alarm. Once COVID-19 vaccines received authorization, equitable vaccination initiatives became a concern, especially as surveys indicated widespread hesitancy and lagging uptake.

Partnering with the Minnesota Electronic Health Record Consortium, SHADAC delved deep into an analysis of COVID-19 vaccination rates in Minnesota, examining not only point-in-time measures of vaccine disparities but also measuring how quickly the state reached vaccination thresholds for different subpopulations. This webinar will present findings from the study, including analysis of disparities in time-to-vaccination by race and ethnicity, age, and other demographic categories.

Attendees learned about:

• Disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates across demographic groups
• How policymakers' vaccine prioritization approach may have contributed to health inequities
• Ideas for improved metrics for measuring time-sensitive interventions during public health emergencies 

Speakers

Colin Planalp, Speaker SHADAC Colin Planalp, MPA, senior research fellow at SHADAC and author on the analysis, will present data published in a recent brief. He will be joined by Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc, past-President of the consortium and co-director of the Health, Homelessness, and Criminal Justice Lab at Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute. Dr. Winkelman will discuss the Minnesota EHR Consortium and its unique data source, which made the study’s time-to-vaccine analysis possible.

Dr. Tyler Winkelman, Speaker Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute Dr. Tyler Winkelman is the Past-President of the Minnesota Electronic Health Record Consortium and co-director of the Health, Homelessness, and Criminal Justice Lab at Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute. Dr. Winkelman is also the General Internal Medicine Division Chief at Hennepin Healthcare. He leads the Consortium’s COVID-19 Project, a statewide collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health to track COVID-19 prevalence, testing, and vaccination among racial and ethnic groups, as well as people experiencing homelessness and/or incarceration.

Related Resources

• Webinar slides from SHADAC
• Disparities in Minnesota's COVID-19 Vaccination Rates (Brief)
• Full Transcript