Far More Women Getting Vaccines

In the early weeks of the COVID-19 vaccine in Wisconsin, women are roughly twice as likely to get the shot.

As of Monday, nearly 10% of Wisconsin women have gotten at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 5.2% of Wisconsin men, according to the state Department of Health Services (DHS), which posts data every day from the Wisconsin Immunization Registry.

Altogether, 287,936 women have received at least one dose of the vaccine, along with 150,017 men. Another 2,972 people have gotten the shot whose biological sex was not recorded.

There’s a relatively simple explanation, says DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk, who fielded a question on the disparity at a DHS media briefing on the pandemic on Friday, Jan. 29.

“If you look at the health care workforce, I think you will see a very similar gender distribution,” Van Dijk said. The first phase of the vaccination rollout focused on health care workers as well as nursing home residents.

DHS expects the numbers to even out as more people are vaccinated, she added. “We strongly encourage all genders to seek vaccines for their protection.”

Reprinted with permission of Wisconsin Examiner.