With flu season here, health officials urge communities of color to get vaccinated for the virus.
In January, the New York Times reported that four of 10 cases of flu-related hospitalization in New York City were black or Hispanic, with a disproportionate number being children, making the flu a public health issue that affects every demographic in New York with racial and ethnic identities. The report went on to note that there are only about 20 children in New York City who have been diagnosed with H1N1 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[1]
It goes without saying that this is a pressing question for minority communities, and in this paper we are interested in exploring what kind of racial and ethnic disparities exist in how the public views influenza, and in how this influences decisions for and against vaccinations that will protect our communities. We used data from two surveys, the Survey of Consumer Attitudes on the Influenza Virus (SCAIV) from the Pew Research Center and the Black and Hispanic Health Survey (BHHS) from the Centers for Disease Control. The questions in both surveys ask respondents to rate, on a scale that goes from extremely unlikely to extremely likely, the likelihood that they would get the flu (10% for this paper).
In this paper, we use a statistical difference test to find out if there are differences between black and white respondents in the likelihood of getting the flu and the ratings they place on the likelihood of getting the flu. We also explore the relationship between respondents’ likelihood of getting the flu and their attitudes towards vaccinations and their beliefs about the safety of the vaccine. We find that black respondents are more likely to get the flu and the public finds the vaccine less safe. And we find that the racial gap in perceptions of the safety of flu vaccines is consistent with the racial gap in perceptions of the likelihood of getting the flu. We also find that the racial gap in views of the vaccine is not explained by other factors that vary with race such as political ideology, socioeconomic status, or religious affiliation.
A note on methodology: While we find that black respondents have a higher likelihood of
