U of T research students study inequities of the vaccine rollout in COVID-19 hotspots

A team of University of Toronto students have released a research project, evaluating COVID-19 vaccine clinics in hotspots and have found the policies weren’t equitable.

The preliminary study looked at how vaccines were distributed in the neighbourhoods of Rexdale and Jane and Finch, where infections were disproportionately higher than in other Toronto neighbourhoods.

Their findings revealed that while actually receiving a vaccine was an easy process, it was made inaccessible through “clinic miscommunication/lack of communication, disorganization and location.”

“Although the government is saying [the rollout] was an equitable one, that they did the three-stage roll out vaccine strategy, it failed to accompany policies necessary in marginalized communities,” said Caitlin Arizala, one of the community researchers.

The researchers, who also live and work in the communities they studied, looked at experiences accessing vaccines from pop ups and mobile vaccine clinics.

“We are not just researchers in this community, but we’re also part of this community. And we recognize that there was a huge gap in terms of what COVID-19 policies were available. Also, the burden COVID-19 has placed on our communities is inequitable,” said Arizala.

In the preliminary case study, they interviewed 12 students between the ages of 17 and 22 about shared their experiences between March to December 2021, 90 percent of them received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

They also interviewed four community leaders as a part of the research study who were directly responsible for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in their neighbouhoods.

“All of our participants mentioned that they had to jump through hoops to access these equitable and accessible clinics, so it really calls into question how accessible these clinics are really,” said Arizala. “A lot of people felt like it was just established in their communities, and they didn’t truly try to reach these community members.”

“When it comes to low-income communities, it was, “Here’s a vaccine clinic, come and get the vaccine, we know you need it.’That provided a quick fix or cater to people’s needs,” added community researcher Abigail Ralph.

One of the examples they used was the accessibility to these clinics. Transportation was an issue for some who had to take public transit and wait all day in long-line ups while others couldn’t afford to take the day off work.

“The pandemic started in March 2020. The government failed to provide and collect race-based data until, I think, a year later after the pandemic started and that was very problematic in terms of the distribution of testing clinics and providing help and resources to certain communities.” explained Omer Jamal, another community researcher on the project.

“The government made the same mistake with vaccine clinics,” said Jamal. “They weren’t able to effectively use race-based data to target the communities that needed it most.”

“A lot of these communities did not have accessible vaccine clinics and for future pandemics, that’s a something that the government needs to deeply consider as many of these communities have essential workers working in these communities, as well as they come from a variety of multi-ethnic groups,” said Jamal.

Improved accessibility was one of the six recommendations made by the group of students in order to improve vaccine access in Toronto hotspots.

Other recommendations includ having clinics led by community members as one of their participants noted they felt much more comfortable when they were able to receive their vaccine at a mosque. Another was to make the process at the vaccine clinics quicker as some had to wait close to five hours in line, in the cold, in order to receive their shot.

One of the community researchers, Richelle Nelson added the vaccine hesitancy for the Black community was framed as something bad and due to a lack of education, rather than the concerns around underlying mistrust that were not addressed.

“I think if we address that by actually educating instead of just painting this community as not caring about their health, that will help a lot of things as well,” said Nelson.

Jamal added beyond vaccine clinics, the government need to look at the social determinants of health when coming up with pandemic support.

“They need to look at the financial issues that people in these communities have and they have to also provide more supports because just providing vaccine clinics and providing testing is not enough for these communities. They need more, and they’ve gone through a lot through this pandemic,” said Jamal.

Toronto Public Health, in response to the study, said they “appreciate hearing from all Toronto residents in relation to their expierences with receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.”

They add that the city regularly monitored and evaluated to how the COVID-19 vaccines were delivered to ensure all residents had access.

“TPH continues to work closely with Team Toronto health and community partners to remove barriers to ensure equitable vaccine access for communities that are most disproportionately impacted by COVID-19,” read their statement to CityNews. “Many initiatives have been implemented and are underway to help to increase vaccination coverage in specific neighbourhoods that have lower vaccination rates, including in northwest Toronto.”

The Univerity of Toronto students’ presentation won the 2021-2022 UTSC Undergraduate Research and Creative Symposium and is currently being used by the Jane-Finch Centre, the Black Creek Community Health Centre, and the Canadian Youth Roundtable on Health.

The students emphazied this was only a preliminary study and more needs to be done to understand the expierences, both negative and positive of residents accessing vaccines at clinics.

They hope to also present their findings to policymakers and discuss the potential next steps.

CityNews also reached out to the Ministry of Health for their response to the study, but have been able to provide a response.

Evaluating & Improving … by CityNewsToronto