Merritt Alexes, Bansal Shweta
Georgetown University Department of Biology, USA.
Georgetown University Department of Biology, USA.
Vaccine. 2025 Jun 11;58:127218. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2025.127218. Epub 2025 May 15.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, carceral communities suffered disproportionate impacts across multiple health indicators despite numerous protective measures. As the COVID-19 vaccination campaign began in 2021, many states introduced plans and policies, including prioritization, decarceration, and incentivization, that could increase the vaccination coverage of these vulnerable communities and protect them from further spread. Here, we analyze the geographic distribution of COVID-19 vaccination coverage among incarcerated populations and assess the impact of implemented policies on this coverage.
We used jurisdiction-level data collected by the UCLA COVID Behind Bars project to characterize vaccination coverage, initial vaccination rate, and days to saturation of coverages in the incarcerated population by state. We also used a regression model to understand the association between implemented policy (incentivization, prioritization, and decarceration) and incarcerated vaccine coverage.
Our study found significant geographic heterogeneity in incarcerated vaccination coverage, initial vaccination rate, and days to saturation of coverage. Our regression analysis revealed that the timing of vaccine prioritization for incarcerated populations, measured as the duration they were prioritized before vaccines became available to the general public, was significantly associated with higher vaccination rates in these facilities. In contrast, decarceration and incentivization had weaker associations with vaccination coverage among the incarcerated.
Our work provides a quantitative analysis of vaccination in confined communities during a public health emergency. We highlight striking geographic disparities in incarcerated vaccination metrics across states, highlighting how decentralized correctional healthcare systems produced uneven protection for this vulnerable population. Our findings also inform optimal allocation of limited resources by demonstrating the effectiveness of early vaccine access policies relative to other policies.
在新冠疫情期间，尽管采取了众多防护措施，但监禁场所的人群在多项健康指标方面受到了不成比例的影响。随着2021年新冠疫苗接种运动的开展，许多州出台了计划和政策，包括优先接种、减少监禁人数和激励措施，这些措施可以提高这些弱势群体的疫苗接种覆盖率，并保护他们免受进一步传播的影响。在此，我们分析了被监禁人群中新冠疫苗接种覆盖率的地理分布，并评估了已实施政策对该覆盖率的影响。
我们使用了加州大学洛杉矶分校“监狱中的新冠疫情”项目收集的辖区层面数据，以描述各州被监禁人群的疫苗接种覆盖率、初始接种率和达到覆盖率饱和所需的天数。我们还使用了回归模型来了解已实施政策（激励措施、优先接种和减少监禁人数）与被监禁人群疫苗接种覆盖率之间的关联。
我们的研究发现，在被监禁人群的疫苗接种覆盖率、初始接种率和达到覆盖率饱和所需的天数方面存在显著的地理异质性。我们的回归分析表明，为被监禁人群确定疫苗接种优先顺序的时间（以在疫苗向公众提供之前他们被优先考虑的持续时间来衡量）与这些场所较高的接种率显著相关。相比之下，减少监禁人数和激励措施与被监禁人群的疫苗接种覆盖率之间的关联较弱。
我们的工作对公共卫生紧急情况下封闭社区的疫苗接种情况进行了定量分析。我们强调了各州在被监禁人群疫苗接种指标方面存在显著的地理差异，突出了分散的惩教医疗系统对这一弱势群体的保护不均衡。我们的研究结果还通过展示早期疫苗接种政策相对于其他政策的有效性，为有限资源的优化分配提供了参考。
