Wednesday, May 5, 2021

First Watch

A Geographic Look at Vaccinated Oklahoma

(Editor’s Note: You may have mistakenly received an outdated edition of this newsletter Tuesday evening. We apologize for this technical error. I hope you find this edition useful.)

Oklahoma Watch investigative reporter Paul Monies has mined state demographic, income and COVID-19 vaccination data to provide a first glimpse at the geography of vaccinated Oklahoma.

Use his interactive map to find the most current vaccination data in your ZIP code — and the vast majority of state ZIP codes. There are caveats, of course.

The state health department provides ZIP-code level vaccination data biweekly. Its tracking system doesn’t include vaccines administered by most of the state’s tribes. The Indian Health Service ships COVID-19 vaccines directly to tribes, with more than 323,000 doses administered so far in the region that includes Oklahoma and Kansas.

Also, the state provides only a vaccination range (10-20%, 20-30%) rather than a specific percentage. Still, with about one-third of the state’s population over age 16 fully vaccinated, Paul’s map and analysis show vaccination rates lagging in swaths of eastern Oklahoma and spots in the west.

Some other findings:

• ZIP codes with higher median household incomes had higher vaccination rates. The state’s lowest median income ZIP code, located in south-central Oklahoma on the Texas border, was in the lowest categories for first and second doses.
• Half of all adults in the state’s highest median ZIP code, an enclave in Oklahoma City, have received the first dose, and more than one-third completed their doses.
• Many of the rural ZIP codes in eastern Oklahoma with low vaccination rates had higher proportions of their residents over age 65.
• Higher-income ZIP codes in suburban Oklahoma City and Tulsa had higher vaccination rates than their neighbors inside the major cities.

— Mike Sherman, Executive Editor

Around the web

• “Unforgotten Oklahomans”: The Oklahoma COVID Legacy Project is Oklahoma Watch‘s effort to build a digital memorial to those we’ve lost. Our friends at The Frontier have their own storytelling initiative. [The Frontier]
• “Do You Live In A Political Bubble?”: This interactive story lets you answer that question for yourself and tackles the question “How did we end up with such a segregated political landscape?” [The New York Times]
• ICYMI: Welcome to the new Lightning Capital of the U.S. (Sorry, Florida). [The Washington Post]

Help Us Make a Difference

During times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, Oklahoma needs high-quality investigative journalism. That is our mission at Oklahoma Watch. We produce stories that hold government and public officials accountable and that make transparent what some prefer to keep secret. We depend on financial support from readers like you to sustain our coverage. Help us make a difference.