Social Vulnerability to the Infection and Vaccination of COVID-19 in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

Keywords: COVID-19, Social Vulnerability, Prevalence, Vaccination, Milwaukee
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This study focuses on variation of the prevalence and vaccination rates of COVID-19 over time by age and race/ethnicity, and how neighborhood social vulnerability affects the prevalence and vaccination rates in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. The neighborhood social vulnerability was quantified by an overall social vulnerability index and its sub-components resulted from a principal components analysis on 25 social variables at census tract level. The effects of social vulnerability on the COVID-19 prevalence and vaccination rates were examined by OLS and spatial regression models. It found that the highest prevalence rate was for young adults (18-44). Hispanics and Asians were more likely to be infected than were non-Hispanic whites and African Americans. The high neighborhood social vulnerability was associated with greater risk of infection especially for persons over age 25, for Hispanics and Asians. It also found great disparities in vaccination rates by race and between areas of low and high social vulnerability. Comparing to non-Hispanic blacks, the vaccination rate of non-Hispanic whites in the county is 23% higher (60% vs. 37%) in overall rate (one or more doses), and 20% higher (29% vs. 9%) in booster rate (three or more doses). The social vulnerability has positive effects on one-dose and two-dose rates, but negative effects on booster rate, and the effects of social vulnerability become increasingly stronger and turn to negative for multi-dose vaccination rates, indicating the increasing challenges of high social vulnerability areas to multi-dose vaccination.