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Bayview And Tenderloin Have Far Higher Vaccination Rates Than Pac Heights and Presidio

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Image: SF.Gov

It’s been well-established throughout the pandemic that the poorest neighborhoods are hardest hit by COVID-19. And when the vaccines first became widely available in March and April, the Chronicle rightfully reported that San Francisco’s poorest neighborhoods weren’t getting enough vaccine doses, threatening to make that deadly disparity even worse. 

We looked into the current vaccination rates by neighborhood, expecting to find wealth gap disparities. We found them, alright, but they were the opposite disparities we expected to find. San Francisco’s wealthiest neighborhoods have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the city, and many of the poorest neighborhoods have the highest vaccination rates.

We stumbled across this Tuesday afternoon tweet from local drag star Kochina Rude, whom you may know more for her recurring drag shows at the Oasis and at the Eagle than as a public health pundit. “It appears one of SF’s poorest neighborhoods (the Tenderloin) is 87% vax’d (97% have had a 1st shot) — meanwhile the richest neighborhood (the Presidio) is trailing behind at 65% vax’d (70% had 1 shot).”

Could this be true? Reader, it is true, and there are other disparities where wealthy neighborhoods have vaccination rates that are 15-20% lower than some of the poorest residential districts in the city.

Image: SF.Gov

Using data from SF.Gov’s COVID-19 vaccinations by neighborhood map, we see that the Bayview has a shockingly good 91% vaccination rate, the second highest in the city, even though the Bayview has the seventh lowest average household income of the 50 recognized neighborhoods in the city. The Tenderloin, which has the lowest average household income of any neighborhood in the city, as of today has an exceptionally good 86% vaccination rate. (The citywide average is 79%, which is an “at least one dose” count).

But Pacific Heights, the Billionaire’s Row mansion-land that is home to Nancy Pelosi and Danielle Steele, has a very disappointing vaccination rate of just 73%  — nearly 20 points lower than Bayview! 

And the even wealthier enclave of the Presidio has a dismal 58% vaccination rate, the third-worst in town. (SF.Gov counts the Presidio and Presidio Heights as two different neighborhoods. Presidio Heights is 72% vaccinated, which is still well below the city’s average.)

It is not accurate to say that wealthiest neighborhoods have the lowest vaccination rates, but a few of them do fall  into that category. Here are the five least-vaccinated neighborhoods in San Francisco.

5. The Marina (67% vaccinated)

4. Lone Mountain/USF (59% vaccinated)

3. The Presidio (58% vaccinated)

2. Treasure Island (49% vaccinated)

1. Lakeshore (45% vaccinated)

If you or someone you know is still not vaccinated — and we’re talking to you, Billionaire’s Row — here’s where you can get vaccinated for free in San Francisco.

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Joe Kukura- Millionaire in Training

Joe Kukura- Millionaire in Training

Joe Kukura is a two-bit marketing writer who excels at the homoerotic double-entendre. He is training to run a full marathon completely drunk and high, and his work has appeared in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal on days when their editors made particularly curious decisions.