Promoting and Prioritizing AI/ANs in the DC Metropolitan Area for the COVID-19 Vaccine

WHEREAS, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB), established in 1972, serves all Federally recognized American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Tribal governments by advocating for the improvement of health care delivery to AI/ANs, as well as upholding the Federal government’s trust responsibility to AI/AN Tribal governments; and

WHEREAS, the National Indian Health Board advocates for all AI/ANs on issues related to health care, including vaccines, of critical importance to the health and public health of Indian Country; and

WHEREAS, the federal government’s trust responsibility to provide AI/AN healthcare does not end at the borders of an Indian reservation, Alaska Native Village, Pueblo or Tribal lands, and Congress acknowledged during the 1987 reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act the responsibility for the provision of health care services follows AI/AN to urban areas; and

WHEREAS, there are nearly 4,000 AI/ANs living in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, the majority of whom relocated from Tribal communities to serve their Tribe, Native Village and/or all Tribes by working for and/or negotiating with the United States; and

WHEREAS, the first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of AI/ANs to poor health outcomes due to public policy, social and economic factors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) age-adjusted rates of COVID-19 hospitalization among AI/ANs from March 1, 2020, through January 23, 2021, were 3.6 times higher than for non-Hispanic Whites; ¹ and

WHEREAS, there is a lack of complete data on COVID-19 outcomes among AI/ANs. Available COVID-19 data already highlights significant disparities between AI/ANs and the general population. In an August 2020 report on COVID-19 in Indian Country, the CDC acknowledged that reporting of detailed case data to CDC by states is known to be incomplete and AI/AN persons are commonly misclassified as non-AI/AN races and ethnicities in epidemiologic and administrative data sets, leading to an underestimation of AI/AN morbidity and mortality; ² and

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID View Weekly Summary. Accessed 9/1/2020.