Shiawassee Times

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called racial equality a cornerstone of the state’s COVID-19 response, but despite that statement, it seems that there is no collection of data that would ensure racial equality in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations, according to Bridge Michigan.

There are counties that do collect this demographic data, but there is no easy way to get that information into the Michigan Care Improvement Registry (MCIR), which has been used for decades to track vaccinations. The MCIR was first used for children, and then in 2006 its use was expanded to include tracking adult vaccinations.

Elizabeth Hertel, the new director of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), told Bridge Michigan that the state is playing catch-up when it comes to collection of racial data.   

“Up until now, (collecting race data) hadn't really been the purpose of MCIR,” Hertel told Bridge Michigan. “While it may have been collected somewhere else, it wasn't coming centrally. That's why we're trying to... find out where the data is and then bring it together.”

Debra Furr-Holden, a member of the governor’s Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, recently got her vaccination and said that there was no questioning about her insurance information, her race, gender or other background.

“It is almost criminal to me because we knew the vaccine was coming,” Furr-Holden said, according to Bridge Michigan. “We know in the absence of a lot of intention and effort that — even if we put (vaccination sites) in communities — that is not going to ensure that (the vaccine) is getting put in people's arms equitably or fairly.”

Detroit does ask for race information when people receive COVID-19 vaccinations, while Washtenaw County has the information in electronic health records that could, in theory, be added to the MCIR. Calhoun County has collected race information but hasn’t compiled and reported it at this point.

Many other states have been collecting race information from vaccine recipients, and two states that do collect -- Ohio and Indiana -- found that black and Hispanic residents are being vaccinated at lower rates, compared to their representation in the state’s population.  

Creation of a centralized data collection point in the state could greatly improve collection and submission of this information, but considering there’s no standard collection of the information across the country, the fractured system in Michigan isn’t a surprise.

"We have sown a system of localized, fractured and competitive health care markets,” Jeffrey Byrnes, a medical ethicist at Grand Valley State University, told Bridge Michigan. “That model does not have centralized data, and now that we have encountered the public health crisis at the largest scale, we want that data, and it's not available to us.”