Time - USA (2021-03-15)

Downtown

Dallas

IRVING

COCKRELL

HILL

HIGHLAND

PARK

PRESTON

HOLLOW

MESQUITE

RICHARDSON

NORTH

DALLAS

SOUTH

DALLAS

30

30

635

20

20

35

35

45

5 MILES

8 KM

0 1,000 2,500

48 TIME March 15/March 22, 2021

Health

a vaccine? Then, when could they get a
vaccine, and how in the world could they
get on the list for a shot?
On this Tuesday morning, Mixon
stands wrapped in a plaid shawl and knit
cap watching volunteers help those arriv-
ing for the food distribution. Her brother
hoists orange net bags fi lled with pota-
toes, onions, grapefruit, tuna and other
canned goods, as women equipped with
iPads tell visitors they can help them reg-
ister for vaccine appointments. Right
here. Right now.
Around 11 a.m., a Black man in a pink
surgical mask and forest green pickup
truck rolls up and asks for help with reg-
istration. He’s 68 and has a “touch of high
blood pressure but thank God, so far, no
sugar [diabetes],” he tells a volunteer. She
enters his name, address and health in-
formation that indicates he’s at high risk
of contracting and dying of the corona-
virus. She wears a blue mask beneath a
face shield and, to make it easier to fi ll in
the online form, one glove. It’s 29°F out-
side. The whole thing takes 7 min. 51 sec.
“Everybody should be doing some-
thing to help amend some of the gaps,”
says Mixon.
In Dallas County, and almost every
other part of the nation, those gaps
emerged in a vaccine rollout that aggra-
vated rather than addressed the ineq-
uities that have made the pandemic so
much deadlier for some populations. In
February, as Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention data showed that Black,
Latino and Native Americans were at
least twice as likely as white people to
die of COVID-19, it was white Americans
who secured most vaccine doses. In the
23 states that try to track the race or eth-
nicity of those vaccinated, most reported
white people were getting vaccinated at
disproportionately high rates, according
to a Feb. 1 analysis by the Kaiser Family
Foundation.
Dallas County, which includes the
city by the same name and other mu-
nicipalities, is a case in point. Non-
Hispanic white residents make up
28% of the population but were nearly
63% of those registered to receive vac-
cinations as of Jan. 24, about three
weeks after online-only registration
had opened to people ages 65 and up.
But when local elected offi cials tried
to correct the situation—by prioritiz-

ing people in neighborhoods like Ideal,

where the need was greatest—the state

beat back their eff orts, and Dallas County

returned to age-based vaccine target-

ing. That delivered another advantage

to white Americans, who tend to live

longest. So what might have been a case

study in addressing structural inequality

instead demonstrated why many Black

Americans mistrust the medical system.

“Sometimes it’s in the mistakes that

we learn,” says Janice Bowie, a behav-

ioral scientist and professor at the Johns

Hopkins Center for Health Disparities

Solutions. “And unfortunately, in this

case, some of these mistakes, you know,

have cost people their lives.”

LIKE IDEAL, MUCH OF SOUTH DALLAS

was deemed a Black residential zone in

the early 20th century by law, custom

and preference of both powerful and

ordinary white people. In Ideal, and

in neighborhoods around the country

where mostly Black and more recently

Latino families live, scars and new

wounds of inequity are obvious.

Even Mixon, who has been running

T.R. Hoover for more than 20 years, is

sometimes taken aback by how easy it

is to spot the diff erences between North

and South Dallas, whose unoffi cial di-

viding line is Interstate 30. Before the

pandemic, Mixon took some students

attending an after-school program at

T.R. Hoover on a fi eld trip that required

a drive through North Dallas. Several

kids wanted to know where the power

lines were. Mixon was surprised they

had noticed.

In Ideal and much of South Dallas,

power and other utility lines are largely

aboveground, suspended along and

across streets on giant poles. In much of

Fair Park

vaccination

center

T.R. Hoover

Community

Development

Corp.

SOURCES: PARKLAND HEALTH & HOSPITAL SYSTEM; PARKLAND CENTER FOR CLINICAL INNOVATION

As of Jan. 18,

81,040 vaccine doses

had been distributed

in Dallas County—

most going to

white and affl uent

neighborhoods

in North Dallas

WHERE THEY

WERE NEEDED MOST

Dallas County identi-

fi ed 11 ZIP codes

for vaccine priority

based on data indi-

cating their residents

were at the highest

risk of becoming

seriously ill or dying

from COVID-19

WHERE THE

VACCINES WENT

EVERYBODY SHOULD

BE DOING SOMETHING

TO HELP AMEND

SOME OF THE GAPS.’

ÑSHERRI MIXON