Photo: ROBYN BECK / AFP / Getty Images
By: Rosa Vazquez Updated 02 May 2022, 16: 45 pm EDT
Now that cases of COVID-21 are on the rise once again, we we find ourselves back in the familiar cycle of preparing for the next wave or another dangerous variant. Even now, in the third year of the pandemic, we must remain vigilant about our protection, including vaccinations and boosters.
Currently, a little more than 59% of Latinos in California are vaccinated, a much lower percentage than the general population. However, important work is being done to help close that gap and keep our community safe.
Come on! What are you waiting for? (AQE), a campaign led by AltaMed Health Services, is helping Latino communities across the state through a coalition of community health clinics that provide professional medical services, medical assistance teams, and immunization clinics to all who care. they need, where they need it, and in a language they understand.
My colleagues and I, known as Promoters, are the soldiers on the ground for this campaign. Many of us grew up in these communities and have been working tirelessly on the front lines of this pandemic going door to door encouraging our neighbors to get vaccinated.
The truth is that our community has stopped trusting traditional institutions, because it felt completely abandoned by them at the height of the pandemic.
Trust AltaMed as a healthcare resource in the Latino community, we have found that has been the key to saving lives, and that trust has been earned with consistency and patience.
By talking directly with families, we built that trust over time and learned to better understand the issues that matter most to our neighbors. This allows us to address your biggest concerns, answer important questions, and provide key data and resources.
We are proud of this groundwork, and the results have been substantial: in just 9 months, the AQE campaign has directly engaged more than 6.5 million Latinos in California, provided more than 100,000 vaccinations and more than 60,000 other health care services that were needed .
As a DACA recipient, I fully understand the fears and concerns of undocumented people seeking any type of medical attention. Our Promotoras help dispel these fears and connect those who are undecided with clinics, medical professionals and other services in the language. This helps break down the systemic barriers we face in obtaining quality health care, while also working to close the health equity gap that has been highlighted by the pandemic.
It is clear that this Promotoras model has provided a much-needed solution in a critical time for a vastly underserved community. While the losses suffered by the Latino community in recent years have been significant, resilience can also be found in numbers. According to the CDC, Latinos nationally now represent a greater proportion of vaccinated people (21%) in compared to its share in the total population (17%).
As the pandemic becomes endemic and we assess how our society has responded, it is clear to us that solutions must be community driven from now on. One of the most important results of our work has been to show that the Promotora model is a proven, long-term sustainable and adaptable solution to address health equity issues in the Latino community.
With dedicated resources, we believe we can expand our program to focus on everything from immunizations to annual physicals, prenatal care for expectant mothers, cancer screenings, and other important health checkups.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, Latinos have the highest percentage of people without health insurance, compared to any other racial or ethnic group within the United States. With lack of access to health care across the country, it is not surprising that Latinos face higher rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer compared to non-Hispanic whites.
What came out of this crisis has the potential to transform the way our community accesses healthcare. We hope that Promotoras can become a permanent fixture in neighborhoods across the state and across the country, to ensure that we all have reliable and open access to quality health care.
Rosa Vazquez is the Community Campaign Manager for ¡Ándale! What are you waiting for?
rovazquez@altamed.org2022