A Prince William County Public Schools teachers receives a coronavirus vaccination at Unity Reed High School outside Manassas. [Uriah Kiser/PLN]
The COVID virus is no respecter of race or ethnicity, but its infection rate ravages Black and Hispanic communities at far higher rates that White populations. Black and Hispanic hospitalizations and mortality also occur at far higher rates than among White populations, but their life-saving vaccination rates are far below that of Whites.
The reasons are not a mystery. Black and Hispanic workers are more likely to work in essential services where transmission of the virus is more frequent, they often live in multi-generational homes, and have less access to health care.