Inegalitarian effects on access to vaccines of delegating Covid-19 vaccination to a private online appointment platform: The French case

Abstract

A great deal of research has shown that health inequalities are the product of socially unequal wear and tear of bodies, socially differentiated use of the healthcare system and unequal access to care, as well as healthcare professionals’ differentiating practices. However, public policies are rarely the focus of recent investigations on the production of health inequalities. How can public policies produce or even amplify health inequalities, but also reduce them, or fail to do so? This study aims to investigate the impact of online appointment booking on effective access to Covid-19 vaccination. Through a quantitative survey of the first weeks of vaccination against Covid-19 in 2021 in an undeserved French suburb called Seine-Saint-Denis, this paper shows how the vaccination policy has contributed to reproducing and amplifying inequalities towards Covid-19: middle and upper classes are significantly more represented among people vaccinated (67%) than in the population of Seine-SaintDenis (41%), and working classes are significantly less represented (33%) than in Seine-Saint-Denis (59%). The people vaccinated are more highly educated and more often French than the population of SeineSaint-Denis. Online appointment favoured more educated people.