In Houston, 43% of the population that has already received the vaccine is white, against 21% Hispanic, 15% Asian and 18% black, according to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
READ MORE: New figures show under-vaccinated black Hispanic communities
The Houston Department of Health and members of the Texas’ Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel say that in addition to the state’s mass vaccination centers, cities also need a plan to vaccinate more people in communities of color.
Turner joined other elected leaders in the Houston area on Saturday, February 6, to discuss how the city is planning to combat these inequalities and reduce the disparity seen in high-risk, vulnerable and needy communities.
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He addressed two main parts of the plan that he and other local leaders said they plan to follow.
The first is that Houston and Harris County will work to be more “intentional and directional” with where they distribute COVID-19 vaccines.
Turner acknowledged that mass vaccination sites are good for numbers, not equity. This means that many people are showing up to receive a dose of the vaccine, but the majority of people who attend are not from minority communities.
He said the state needs to send more vaccines to the Houston Department of Health and Harris County Public Health, because those departments are the ones that supply the vaccines to smaller community clinics.
He also said that addressing this disparity in the allocation of vaccines to smaller community clinics that are present in minority communities will directly address hesitation in obtaining the vaccine.
“When neighbors and family members come (people they know getting a vaccine), they won’t want to be left out,” he said.
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The second key part of the plan is to work constructively to share vaccine doses with other suppliers.
“You could have the best healthcare system in the world, but if you can’t access it? It doesn’t matter,” said Turner.
According to the mayor, Harris County Public Health hospitals received fewer doses of vaccine than other providers. But 88% of vaccines at Harris Health hospitals were for people of color.
Many of the hospitals in the Harris healthcare system are “closer to where people live,” said Turner, making them the perfect providers to help make vaccines available and accessible to minority communities. Harris Health is also the only new hospital security system in the area, serving people with low income or without insurance, said Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, president and CEO of the Harris Health system.
Turner said his team will work to distribute more doses to Harris health care providers and FQAC clinics, such as the Hope Clinic and Ibn Sina Clinic.
The city also determined priority postal codes, using data on age, race and ethnicity to determine where vaccine distribution is low, said Houston Department of Health director Stephen Williams. The COVID-19 vaccines were distributed at the Settegast Health Center in northeastern Houston on Saturday, which falls under one of the priority postal codes.
“There is nothing genetically different about people that makes them more susceptible to contracting COVID-19,” said the city’s top health official, Dr. David Persse. “These are the social inequalities present. We must outsmart the problem.”
Overall, Turner said, the problems will begin to alleviate as more doses of the vaccine become available and distributed to providers in minority communities.
“If we don’t get up and speak out against the injustices that are taking place, who will?” Turner said.
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