Online vaccine sign-ups make Internet access a matter of life and death

Writing for The Washington Post, Claire Park looks at how the pandemic highlights the life-or-death consequences of the digital divide as states rely on online resources for booking vaccine appointments.

Getting a vaccine shouldn’t depend on having high-speed Internet service, a computer and familiarity with being online, but it often does. By reviewing digital resources such as The Washington Post’s tracker of vaccinations across the country, residents can stay informed about the coronavirus and sign up for vaccinations online. Yet more than 77 million people in the United States lack Internet at home — and worse, many of them do not have access to a smartphone, making it that much more difficult for them to learn what’s available when and to whom. According to a study from the Pew Research Center, more than 4 in 10 adults with incomes below $30,000 a year don’t have home broadband services or a computer, and 3 in 10 adults in the same income bracket don’t own a smartphone. And even when they are in the loop, these people must also resort to calling state hotlines and waiting for hours on hold to reserve what vaccination appointments remain after many have already been booked online. While some states and communities reserve a number of appointments daily for those calling in, most groups still assume that everyone has the time, Internet service and device to make their appointment on the Web.

Further, Black, Indigenous and Latino people, as well as older adults — the very populations hardest hit by the coronavirus — constitute a disproportionate share of those without Internet access. This means that despite efforts to prioritize vaccinations for those most at risk, people in these communities who lack the Internet service, devices or digital literacy they need to sign up for vaccines online are still left at higher risk of contracting and dying from the virus. Indeed, a study from January surveying states with public data on inoculations by race and ethnicity showed that shares of vaccinations among Black and Hispanic people are usually lower than their shares of the total population, with the percentage of vaccinated Black people smaller than their share of coronavirus cases in all states surveyed. Meanwhile, the share of vaccinations among White people is larger than their share of cases in the majority of the states surveyed, and larger than their share of deaths in more than half the states.