The Montgomery County Council sent a letter to Governor Larry Hogan to detail the racial inequities occurring in pre-registration and vaccine distribution.
The Council stated that people of color must be prioritized in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Councilmember Will Jawando who led this effort, said that it is crucial younger members get vaccinated sooner.
“The latest CDC data on COVID-19 deaths and projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations estimate that U.S. life expectancy has dropped by 1.1 years. However, life expectancy for Black people dropped 3.6 years and 2.5 years for Latino people,” a portion of the letter says.
The racial inequity trend for Black and Latino residents must be broken in the vaccine distribution and the pre-registration system, according to the Council.
The Montgomery County Council has attempted to lessen the racial disparity by working with African American and Latino Health Programs in testing and now vaccination measures. The health department has also targeted specific zip codes with the highest volume of COVID-19 cases.
The full press release from The Montgomery County Council, and text of the letter can be found here.
