On April 9, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond held a virtual roundtable in the first of a series about the importance of encouraging vaccinations in the Black and Latinx communities. In this first roundtable, “How Vaccinations Can Support Latinx Communities,” Thurmond brought local and national leaders to address the common concerns and questions concerning the importance of increasing vaccination rates in the underserved communities that have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thurmond said that as the first person to be elected to his office as an Afro-Latino that he is very conscience about the disparities that is seen in the African American and Latino communities, and the difficulties in these communities in having access to vaccines. Thurmond said he just received his vaccination at that it was “painless, easy, and life changing.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla said we have come a long way since the beginning of the pandemic and that it has been a difficult year, but that there is hope, but everyone needs to continue to do their part by being vaccinated.
“We are so close in turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Padilla. “Vaccines are on the way up, cases in California are coming down, and while people are feeling better about it, I think this is not the time to let up. If you have not gotten your vaccination yet, please sign up as soon as you are eligible. It is safe, it is effective, and it is what you need to do to protect your health, that of your family, of your community and how we all are going to get to the other side of this pandemic.”
Padilla said after vaccination is not a time to relax and that people should still wear masks, social distance, and wash hands until the experts, public health officials and the CDC say that it is okay to quickly open.
Civil Rights Activist Dolores Huerta said there is a crisis in Central Kern County with more than 100,000 people infected with COVID-19 and more than 1,000 deaths.
“This has hit the Latino community very hard,” she said. “I do not think these numbers are accurate because I have heard from people telling me that they have contracted COVID and not reported it to anyone.”
Huerta said the nonprofits in the area got together and formed United Against COVID that has held vaccination sites and gone to the Latino communities to get the word out and to help them get vaccinated.
“They are actually going door to door. They are shielded, masked and giving out maps of where they can get vaccinated and resources that people can acquire now that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rental assistance, food banks, we are really trying to reach out to those communities and constantly reminding them not to be afraid.”
Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher said it was known early that the Latino community was getting hit hard and when the vaccine came, to make sure that the Latino community had access, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors worked to create super centers and super sites throughout all the Latino districts.
“We found out that it was not enough because people would come out from other neighborhoods and take up all the appointments,” she said. “So, they did a program so we could work with our community groups to set aside appointments so we could specifically fill from certain zip codes. We have a partnership with our local firefighters, who in Chula Vista speak Spanish and English, and they will go to the person’s actual home and vaccinate them if for some reason they cannot leave the house.”
Dr. David E. Haynes-Bautista, director of the Study of Latino Health, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA said during this pandemic, Latinos have been many of the essential workers.
“We did not think of farm workers as essential workers, and grocery store clerks as essential workers,” he said. “They were very essential. The kept the state fed, they kept the state going, they kept building to continue to go up, drove the buses and trucks, and that put them at a higher exposure risk. As a result, Latinos and others that occupy those industries have elevated positivity rates, infection rates, hospital admission rates, and elevated mortality.”
Dr. Sarah Hernandez, president/CEO California Health Care Foundation said we really do need to think about who it is that brings the messages about what is learned from public health and science.
“We have a gap if we rely on our healthcare system to be able to respond,” she said. “We have the problem of people uninsured, no primary care provider, and we wanted to call out the infrastructure of our federally qualified health centers that have served our communities and our immigrant population. This pandemic came after a very prolonged anti-immigrant federal policy environment. That created additional significant barriers beyond traditional access barriers.”
Castulo de la Rocha, AltaMed CEO said getting the word out to the Latino community about vaccinations, access to them, and that they are safe is imperative.
“This is not just one person coming to get vaccinated,” he said. “It is la familia, two to five people showing up. In the beginning we were really concerned on who was getting tested and our community was last in a standing priority. Before the vaccine, we pushed hard in letting everyone know that we do not want to be last in the vaccinations. It was clear that the Latino population was testing positive more, getting hospitalized more, and dying more.”
Huerto said it was important to get more information to Latino employers.
“I do not think that they are doing the best that they should, especially our farm workers,” she said. “We also need to assist the communities better. Many of them do not have broadband to use a computer to make an appointment. They need to make it one on one and help these people make their appointments to get their vaccines,”
de la Rocha said a grassroots effort still works in the Latino community.
“Face to face is terribly important,” he said. “Television and radio are very effective in Latino communities, but we do not use it enough to educate our population with strategic messages to those populations.”
Bautista said that these barriers are not new for the Latino population.
“They have been there in fact for 170 years,” he said. “For over a century and a half the major medical institutions of this state have purposely and intentionally turned their back on Latino communities and people of color. When this pandemic came along, we did not have the resources that the communities would have in West Los Angeles.”
Gonzales-Fletcher said laws have passed so everyone can take time off if they get sick.
“That is really important, especially for our undocumented population,” she said. “We know that a lot of the hesitancy in the beginning, and why we have such a problem with our undocumented, is that they could not leave the workplace. They could not say they did not feel well or feel safe to work and get unemployment. They do not qualify. We have all these structural barriers ensuring that our most vulnerable communities, who are our essential workers, have the ability to take care of themselves. We can not come out of the pandemic and forget what was already there. How do we use this point and time, not just to help people access it right now, but remember these barriers that do exist for good health and a good life for so many of our communities? Especially the mixed-status households.”
Gonzales-Fletcher said we must remind people of their rights, work with the employers, tell people they can take time off for vaccinations or if you are sick.
“It is paid for,” she said. “Employers get it back 100% from the federal government if an employee takes that time. We need to get that message out and encourage both the employers to also encourage that from their employees.”
Hernandez said that when it comes to talking to the Latino community about their fears, or misbeliefs about the vaccine, that they must listen to them without judgement.
“That is the most important thing,” she said. “We will get more momentum as more people become vaccinated. What we have learned is that you must take people from where they are, hear them, respect them, listen to them, and then try to provide them the information to help them move towards doing the right thing.”
