Bill de Blasio has been sidelining an eagle and dick-knots, “Tale of Two Cities” New York since he first ran for mayor – but this is a chapter he may have written.
The Big Apple has more vaccination sites in Manhattan than elsewhere, despite Hizoner’s repeated promises that so-called “outside-bore” equity sits at the center of its vaccine delivery strategy, data obtained by The Post reveal .
Manhattan is home to 125 sites where New Yorkers can receive the much-sought COVID-19 vaccination, which is significantly higher than any other borough, city records show.
Despite being home to 2.6 million people, Brooklyn has only 91 job sites – 1 million more than Manhattan. The situation is only better in Queens, with a population of 2.3 million, with 106 vaccination locations, spread over a land area in the city’s largest area.
The Bronx – the city’s poorest bore – has just 69 spots to achieve inoculation. In Manhattan, this number is half that, despite having roughly the same population.
“it’s embarrassing. This is ridiculous.
“This disparity is a problem going back to the test sites,” he said. “I hope we have learned a lesson about the lack of testing in these communities.”
Staten Island, which has one million fewer inhabitants than Manhattan, has 22 vaccination sites.
The Post obtained a list of public and privately run vaccine spots on February 12 – the date of the city’s last major expansion of the distribution network – and then matched the zip codes for each of the 413 locations with corresponding demographic information.
Data released by the city’s Department of Health have led to the conclusion that the coronovirus vaccine rollout has led to greater success in wealthy and white neighborhoods than in working-class and minority parts of New York.
“We have a tendency to centralize everything in Manhattan and this is part of the problem. It advances public inequality, ”said Public Advocate Jumene Williams, who represented Brooklyn’s Flatbush on the city council for years before the election to the city office.
“It’s disappointing to see those things,” Williams told The Post. “The system is not working and it is making inequality worse from infection to injection.”
The paper’s analysis showed that vaccine access disparities are clearly evident even inside Manhattan.
More than three-quarters of Borough’s vaccine spots are located in zip codes, including largely white neighborhoods south of 110th Street, while only 26 out of 125 are in Harlem or other predominantly minority neighborhoods north of Central Park Are in
Which is across the city.
Half of the vaccine locations listed on the city’s vaccine finder – 202 out of 413 – are in zips that are in neighborhoods where whites are the largest group, even though they only account for 32 percent of the Big Apple’s population.
De Blasio again during his daily press briefing on Wednesday focused his attention on borough fairness when it comes to vaccine delivery.
“When it comes to vaccination, we focus on equity,” he told reporters. “We’re focused on making sure that people who have lived in the neighborhood who suffered the most from COVID get access to vaccination, get the support they need, the answers they need, They require outreach. ”
When reached by post about the analysis, City Hall claimed that large-scale inequalities in access were linked to decisions by state and federal authorities to insert private pharmacies, such as Duane Reade and CVS, in large-scale vaccination efforts .
Corporate and mom-and-pop drug stores account for 294 of the 413 locations listed in the city’s data, records show.
“Chain pharmacies, such as Duane Reade, are critical to our vaccination efforts, located in predominantly white and wealthy neighborhoods and reflecting the widespread inequalities of our health system,” said De Blasio administration spokesman Avery Cohen.
He said the city has tried to improve by opening about 50 vaccination sites in all five boroughs – including high-profile setups at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium run in coordination with New York State and nonprofit Somos Community Care .
Despite the effort, outside politicians said the figures showed that their neighborhoods were once again left behind during the epidemic.
“During the height of the epidemic, there was a temporary hospital in Manhattan that was nearly empty while people were dying in the crowded hospital halls in Brookdale and [SUNY] Downstate, ”said Councilwoman Alica Ampry-Samuel (D-Brooklyn), who represents the Hardbrabble Brownsville neighborhood. “This is not frightening but surprising information that can certainly help explain some imbalances in vaccination.”
Additional reporting by Karl Campnaill and Reuven Fenton
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