Political Context, Governmental Healthcare Initiatives, and Social Vulnerability in COVID-19 Vaccination Disparities

• In Event: Medical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 2. Political Ideologies, Political Contexts, and Health

Abstract

This study examines how social vulnerability, governmental healthcare initiatives, and political context interact to shape adult COVID-19 vaccination disparities at the county level. Grounded in a Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) framework with particular attention to political determinants, it evaluates whether vaccination infrastructure—measured by site density and geographic proximity—moderates the relationship between structural disadvantage and vaccine uptake. Ordinary least squares models show that higher social vulnerability is consistently associated with lower vaccination rates. Political context is significantly associated with geographic proximity to vaccination sites, but not with facility density, suggesting that partisan environments shape infrastructure through spatial placement rather than sheer resource volume. Geographic proximity emerges as a more consequential moderator than density. Yet improved proximity does not uniformly reduce inequality; instead, it disproportionately benefits counties with lower levels of socioeconomic and household vulnerability, widening relative disparities. The findings indicate that political context functions as a higher-order determinant shaping not only the distribution of public health resources but also their differential effectiveness. Spatial expansion alone is therefore insufficient to dismantle structural inequalities in vaccination uptake.

Author

• Ting-Hui Lin, University at Buffalo