Incident 104: California's Algorithm Considered ZIP Codes in Vaccine Distribution, Allegedly Excluding Low-Income Neighborhoods and Communities of Color

Description: California's vaccine-distribution algorithm used ZIP codes as opposed to census tracts in its decision-making, which critics said undermined equity and access for vulnerable communities who are largely low-income, underserved neighborhoods with low Healthy Places Index scores.

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Alleged: Blue Shield of California developed an AI system deployed by California Department of Public Health, which harmed California low-income neighborhoods and California communities of color.

Incident Stats

Incident ID

104

Report Count

Incident Date

2021-02-12

Editors

Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam

Applied Taxonomies

CSETv1_Annotator-3, CSETv1_Annotator-1, CSETv1, GMF

CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Incident Number

104

AI Tangible Harm Level Notes

It is unclear if the vaccine distribution algorithm involved AI. Additionally, at the time of the report, the system had not yet been deployed.

Special Interest Intangible Harm

yes

Date of Incident Year

2021

CSETv1_Annotator-1 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Incident Number

104

AI Tangible Harm Level Notes

3.2 - It is unclear if the vaccine distribution algorithm involved AI, but it did make real-life affecting decisions algorithmically and thus is included in this category.

Special Interest Intangible Harm

yes

Date of Incident Year

2021

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

California's “Equity” Algorithm Could Leave 2 Million Struggling Californians Without Additional Vaccine Supply

aclunc.org

aclunc.org · 2021

As most Californians become eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, California is rightly centering equity in distributing doses to communities that have been hardest hit. But our analysis of the state’s most recent plans suggests that the …

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.