Civil liberties advocates in New York are calling for tightening the safeguards around vaccine data, worried that vulnerable communities may be less inclined to receive a COVID-19 vaccine without assurances their privacy would be protected. 

Nearly 70 percent of New Yorkers have at least one COVID shot — and once fully vaccinated they'll be able to return to some version of normal — like attend a concert or a sporting event.

"There is a direct correlation," Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said. "These are numbers, so there's a logic to it. The more people get vaccinated, the lower the positivity rate."

But a deeper dive into the numbers shows a continued disparity between white residents and people of color in New York, said New York Civil Liberties Union policy counsel Allie Bohm. 

"We're risking right now a tale of two cities, a tale of two states where we have a white and wealthier community that moves forward and emerges from this pandemic and we have a browner and blacker communities that don't," she said. "We as a state should be doing everything we possibly can to make sure all of our communities get to emerge intact from the pandemic."

The state early on made outreach for vulnerable and minority groups a priority, with efforts that include bringing mass vaccination centers to Black and low-income neighborhoods and offering free mass transit rides to appointments. But hesitancy surrounding the vaccine remains an issue as the state seeks to boost its rates.  

State lawmakers this year proposed a bill that would tighten up how vaccine information would be shared. Immigrant communities, for instance, are among the groups Bohm said would balk at providing data they fear could be shared with law enforcement. 

"Fear of sharing Social Security numbers, fear about immigration status is a huge barrier for that population," she said. 

The bill is also being pushed as the state has created a so-called vaccine passport that can allow those who are fully immunized for COVID-19 to attend a public gathering once again. 

The vaccine data bill was approved in the Assembly this month, but it's yet to pass in the state Senate. 

"We need to be doing everything we can to break down barriers to vaccination and to make sure immunity passports don't cut the most vulnerable people out of society," Bohm said. "This bill is a piece of that puzzle."