Hundreds of coronavirus vaccine appointments have been left unfilled at the new mass vaccination site at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
The site has slots available to residents of the Bronx only because the neighborhood reports the highest rate of positivity in the city.
But when DailyMail.com visited Somosvaccinations.com on Thursday afternoon, the day the site was launched, at least 300 places between February 7 and 12 had not been booked.
Lawmakers criticized the city for its ‘poor reach’, especially among the high number of black and Latino residents of the Bronx, many of whom are cautious and reluctant to receive the injection.
On Thursday, New York City opened a mass vaccination post at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, but in the afternoon, at least 300 appointments had not yet been filled between February 7 and 12 (left and right)
New York City councilor Mark Levine criticized the city for lack of reach and said more canvassers needed to be on site to schedule appointments. In the photo: Vacancies not filled for vaccines at Yankee Stadium
However, a bleak history of medical experiences has fueled hesitation among minority communities. In the photo: workers organize barricades outside Yankee Stadium the day before the vaccination site opens, February 4
New York City councilor Mark Levine, who represents District 7 in New York City (northern Manhattan), shared a screenshot of the various times available on Twitter.
‘There are still … vaccine applications available at Yankee Stadium next week. They are not disappearing quickly, ‘he I wrote On thursday.
‘This is good news – but also bad news. It means that New York is not making enough publicity to the people there. The city must have teams across the [Bronx] registering people. ‘
Levine regretted that there were not enough prospecting teams in the neighborhood to register residents.
‘Everyone, please help spread the word. We don’t want one [appointment] slot to be left unused! he tweeted.
When Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the Yankee Stadium COVID-19 mass vaccination site would open, he said it would ensure fairness in the distribution of vaccines.
“It is quite clear that the black, Latin and poor communities have been hardest hit by COVID, and the Bronx is no exception,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our efforts to target vaccinations to locations with higher positivity rates have been working not only to keep the infection rate low, but to help ensure equity in our vaccine delivery process.”
Since the launch of the launch in mid-December, fewer vaccines are going into the arms of blacks and Latin Americans.
Vaccination rates are in line with the white population, but blacks and Latinos accounted for only 5.4% and 11.5%, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
This is despite the fact that blacks represent 12.5% and Latinos represent 19% of the United States population.
In New York City, white residents are three times more likely to receive the coronavirus vaccine than Latinos and four times more likely than blacks, city demographics revealed.
However, according to CDC data, blacks and Latin Americans are about 1.5 times more likely to come into contact with the virus than white Americans and about three times more likely to die.
But it is not only disparities, such as access to health care, that are causing these marked differences. Some blacks and Latinos are reluctant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
In New York City, white residents are three times more likely to receive the coronavirus vaccine than Latin residents and four times more likely than black residents
Vaccination rates are in line with the share of the white population, but blacks and Latinos accounted for only 5.4% and 11.5% of vaccinations, despite comprising 12.5% and 19% of the population of USA, according to CDC data
This is because, in the past, racist health policies have attacked America’s colored communities.
One of the best known examples is Tuskegee’s experiments from 1932 to 1971, in which black men were used to track the progression of syphilis.
However, the study was conducted without their consent and they were never treated to cure the sexually transmitted infection.
“If you think historically for African Americans in the United States in terms of how the story went with respect to their interaction with the health care system, of course we know the Tuskegee study,” Dr. Diana Grigsby-Toussaint, associate professor from the behavioral and social sciences department and the epidemiology department, as Brown University School of Public Health told Healthline.
‘Tuskegee was not so long ago. The last surviving member died in 2004. It is not far off. It’s still in people’s memory. ‘
There were also eugenic movements that saw black, Latino and Native American women sterilized across the country in the 20th century.
Grigsby-Toussaint said that these previous experiments that led people of color to be used as ‘guinea pigs’ may leave people concerned about new immunizations.
A November 2020 report by Unidos US, NAACP and COVID Collaborative found that only 14% of black Americans and 34% of Latin Americans trust that coronavirus vaccines are safe.
In addition, only 18% of blacks and 40% of Latinos believe the shots are effective.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the low vaccination rates in minority communities are due to a mixture of distrust and racial inequality.
“We have a deep problem of mistrust and hesitation, especially in communities of color,” he said during a news conference on Sunday.
‘We have a problem of privilege, clearly, where the people who were privileged were able to access the [vaccines] more easily.
“We need to take a more systematic approach to ensure that we focus on the places where the danger is greatest.”
De Blasio said the city plans to redesign the city’s programming website and add more vaccination sites to improve.
He added that registration forms will be available in more languages than English and Spanish, such as Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Haitian Creole.