Cities That Need the Most Initial Vaccinations Against COVID-19

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a big toll on the U.S., effective vaccines will soon be available. We could see widespread distribution of those vaccines by April 2021, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Not everyone will have to wait that long for a vaccine, though. Frontline health care workers may start receiving doses in December. Other groups of people among the first to be vaccinated will be people especially at risk for serious symptoms, such as elderly people in nursing homes and people who have underlying health conditions like heart disease or cancer. Essential workers, such as grocery store employees and public transit drivers, are also close to the front of the line.

In order to determine the cities that will need the most initial COVID-19 vaccinations, WalletHub compared more than 90 large cities across 13 key metrics. Our data set looks at factors like each city’s share of frontline health care workers, nursing home residents, essential workers, residents diagnosed with various diseases and more

Main Findings

Cities That Need the Most Initial COVID-19 Vaccinations

Methodology

In order to determine the cities that will be in need of the most vaccines in the first wave, WalletHub compared 93 large cities. We selected the largest cities in the U.S. for which all of the data needed for this analysis was available (Corpus Christi, TX, Anchorage, AK, Lincoln, NE, Fort Wayne, IN, Laredo, TX, Lubbock, TX and Reno, NV were excluded). We compared the cities across 13 key indicators, which are listed below.

Each metric has been calculated by taking into account total U.S. adult population (population 18 years and older). All cities were graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest share of people in need of vaccination.

We then determined each city’s overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample. In determining our sample, we considered only the city proper in each case, excluding cities in the surrounding metro area.

• Share of Health Care Workers
  Note: This composite metric refers to personnel in ambulatory health care services, hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities.
• Share of Frontline Industries Workers
  Note: This composite metric refers to workers in child care and social assistance, grocery, convenience, and drug stores, public transit, trucking, warehousing, courier and delivery services.
• Share of Population Aged 65 & Older
• Share of Nursing Facility Residents
  Note: This metric was calculated as follows: Total Number of Occupied Beds/Total Adult Population.
• Share of Adult Population Diagnosed with Cancer
  Note: This refers to cancer diagnoses, excluding skin cancer, among adults aged 18 and older.
• Share of Diagnosed HIV Infections
  Note: Reflects new HIV diagnoses per adult population in 2018.
• Share of Adult Population Diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease
• Share of Adult Population Diagnosed with Cardiovascular Disease
• Share of Adult Population Diagnosed with Diabetes
• Share of Adult Population Diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Share of Adult Population Diagnosed with Asthma
• Share of Adult Population Diagnosed with Hypertension
• Share of Obese Adult Population

 
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

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