A new survey reveals that Hispanics have twice the interest in getting vaccinated “as soon as possible” than non-Hispanic whites or Hispanic African-Americans.
However, data shows that access problems continue to be difficult for the population.
A third of unvaccinated Hispanics say they want the doses, compared to 17% African American and 16% White, according to the survey published by KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation ).
“The results reflect an opportunity for public health departments and local governments to reach Hispanics with information and vaccination equipment,” said Liz Hamel, vice president and director of public opinion and survey research at KFF, who leads the organization’s monthly COVID vaccine surveys – 19.
“Definitely, there is a large part of the Hispanic population that is wanting to get vaccinated, but haven’t been able to find the time, have some concerns or questions, or haven’t been able to access the vaccine, ”Hamel said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only about 13% of people in the US, who have received at least one dose of the vaccine They are Hispanic, although they constitute around 17% of the total population. (Only half of the CDC data includes the race or ethnicity of vaccinated individuals.)
Among unvaccinated Hispanics, the 64% were concerned about missing work due to vaccine side effects, and 52% were concerned about having to pay for vaccines – even though vaccines are offered at no cost.
These figures are even higher among undocumented Hispanics.
“It is difficult for someone who lives from day to day to take half a day off to come to a clinic and try to get vaccinated, ”said Dr. José Pérez, chief medical officer of the South Central Family Health Center, a nonprofit health organization with clinics throughout South Los Angeles.
“If they don’t work that day, they don’t earn a living and they don’t eat.”
Those facing immigration issues were more likely to worry about having to show government-issued identification or a soci insurance number al, according to the KFF survey.
The anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration scared people who sought any public health service, fearing that it could jeopardize their immigration status, Pérez said .
“For Americans who are used to having order in their lives, and don’t have to be afraid of this or that, this may seem a bit strange. But for the immigrant community in South Los Angeles, these are factors that they deal with on a daily basis, ”he added.
Despite the encouraging message from the survey, Pérez’s organization has only administered one fraction of the doses it has on hand, although it has expanded vaccination sites, and now offers a vaccine to anyone who enters one of its clinics, Pérez said.
“Everything we can do is to keep pushing, educating, and putting our name out there. Hopefully we’ll catch up. ”
To encourage vaccination
The Biden administration recently announced tax credits for small companies that give their workers paid time off to receive the vaccine and recover from side effects.
Providers are not allowed to charge people for the COVID vaccine – 19 and must distribute vaccines regardless of immigration status or health insurance.
In California, where Hispanics represent close to 40% of the population, the 48% of deaths from covid and the 63% of cases, around 32% have been vaccinated. Cases and deaths are particularly concentrated in low-income, mostly Hispanic neighborhoods.
Community health clinics and organizations across the state are taking the cause of vaccines to the sidewalks, supermarkets and any other place where people gather, seeking to ensure they know how to get an appointment to get vaccinated.
In the zip code surrounding the South Central Family Health Center headquarters, only the 16% of eligible residents had at least one dose as of May 7, according to the California Department of Public Health Vaccine Tracker.
Five months into the nation’s vaccination campaign, as the CDC relaxes mask use recommendations, the clinic is still pushing the importance of masks due to the low number of people who have been vaccinated, said Pérez.
The “indecision in vaccination” has become n a general excuse to explain the low vaccination rates among minority populations, but the problem is complex, said Nancy Mejía, director of the Latino Health Access program in Santa Ana – a nonprofit organization that has a contract with Orange County to bring the vaccine to Latinos.
Promotoras in her group encounter people who face a wide variety of obstacles to getting vaccinated, she said.
“We hear all these questions: ‘I don’t have health insurance’, ‘Do I have to pay?’ or ‘I don’t have an email, how do I register?’ ”he said.
Now that the demand for appointments for vaccination has dropped, Mejía and his group are focusing more on vaccination events Mobile phones in condominium buildings and parking lots where pedestrians and residents can reach on foot.
The events are in the afternoons, after work, or on weekends, so that the decision to get vaccinated is the as easy as possible.
“We see that other places have been open all day and only five people have entered,” he said. “So, for us, being open only a few hours in the afternoon, and getting more than 100 people is a success.”
Carmelo Morales, from 35 years old and a resident of Los Angeles, he was one of the skeptics. After talking to friends and seeing posts on Instagram, he feared the vaccines were a plot to make people sick. He did not see the urgency to get vaccinated.
But this man, who works in a meat packing plant, has been affected by cases and deaths among his colleagues and their families in the last year.
One day at the end of April, as he was returning home from work, he saw that health workers at a church near his home were cleaning up after a covid vaccination event.
He asked if there were any excess doses and, as his house was nearby, the nurses waited for him to run home to look for his identification so that he could take the first dose.
” I just thought and said to myself: Hey, it’s better to be on the safer side ”, he said.