ZIP Code Vaccination Program Methodology
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. The goal of Milwaukee County’s ZIP Code Vaccination Program is to ensure that individuals residing in most underserved areas the County have equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is a widely recognized tool for evaluating a community’s vulnerability to disasters. The index is available at the census tract level. Since most people do not know their census tract, Milwaukee County chose to base its program around something familiar to almost everyone – their ZIP codes. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's crosswalk files were used to sort each census tract into a ZIP code based on where the majority of their residential addresses were located and then averaged all the census tract SVI scores within each ZIP code.
More information about the CDC’s SVI can be found here.