In the four weeks that have passed since Ford Field's mass COVID-19 vaccine clinic opened, Detroiters have gotten just 7.3% of the 124,087 shots that have been administered at the site — far fewer than people who live in neighboring counties, all of which are more affluent and whiter than the city.
When Ford Field opened in late March as Michigan's first federally operated mass vaccination clinic, health officials lauded it as a way to deliver coronavirus vaccines efficiently and equitably into the arms of people living in parts of the country that have been hardest hit by the virus.
Detroit, the nation's biggest majority Black city, was devastated by the virus, especially in the first three months of the pandemic, when its residents were sickened and died at a far higher rate than other Michiganders.