In many cases, says the emergency room doctor, Dr. Marina Del Rios, it all comes down to issues of logistics and access.
“Most people want to be vaccinated, Dr. Del Rios told CNN. But” they have more questions related to ‘where can I get the vaccine, when will it be my turn, will it cost me money?’ “
Residents across the country, Hispanic or Latino, contracted Covid-19 at nearly twice the rate of whites and were hospitalized more than four times the rate of whites, according to recent data from the United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention. . And just under 12% of those vaccinated in the first month of launch were Hispanic or Latino.
The city has made an effort to make the vaccine more available. Unlike many major metropolitan areas, Chicago is allowing drugstores like Walgreens to vaccinate eligible ones, along with smaller local pharmacies in the area.
Even so, distribution locations are grouped in the whiteest areas of the city and are much more sparsely spread on the south and west sides of the city, where the majority of residents are black or Hispanic. Black and Hispanic Chicagoans received 38% of the first doses of the vaccine, while white residents received almost 50%, according to a CNN analysis.
Dr. Del Rios, who works at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, likened the process of delivering the vaccine to “playing the Hunger Games.”
“If you are not yet connected to a medical home, which is a reality for many Latinos without documents or without insurance, then your chances of getting vaccinated soon are almost nil.”
What are the barriers?
Fahida Martinez lived and worked in Chicago’s Little Village for many years. As someone whose work is mainly community-oriented, working from home during the pandemic was not ideal. She ended up talking to the phone and Zoom with community members more than ever.
Martinez recently received her first dose of the vaccine and said she feels privileged to have been one of the first.
Working hours can create obstacles for many people who want the vaccine, she told CNN.
More consultations in the morning, in the evening and over the weekend would give people a better chance of getting the vaccine, said Martinez.
“I would like, for example, that clinics, or places where they are giving the vaccine, have hours … a lot in the morning, as well as at night, to give people a chance,” she said. “Even on Saturdays and Sundays, when people don’t have to leave the workday.
As the launch continues, vaccine delivery locations need to have flexible schedules, experts say.
Katya Nuques, executive director of Enlace Chicago, a community organization, said that 44% of Little Village residents have no insurance and about 25% have no documents.
Enlace focuses on education, violence prevention, immigration and health and they are all connected to Covid-19, she says.
“You basically have to do two things at the same time. One is to educate a community, ”she told CNN. “On the other hand, it is necessary to provide availability and give the vaccine and these two things are not connected”.
Rios, the emergency doctor said, “If you are not yet linked to a medical home, which is a reality for many Latinos who have no documents or insurance, then your chances of getting vaccinated soon are almost nil.”
As a frontline worker, Dr. Del Rios was one of the first to receive the vaccine and the first in Chicago.
“Why not step up and show it to my own community, ‘hey, I’m fine with getting vaccinated, I know the data and I can tell you what side effects you should expect,'” she said.
How to ensure that ‘everyone understands’
Hospitals, for example, must ensure that their entire workforce, including food and maintenance personnel, receive all correspondence about applying for the vaccine, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association .
Blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans represent 41% of healthcare professionals, while 59% are white, according to Kaiser. And the majority of workers in long-term healthcare facilities, 52%, are people of color.
Benjamin said the vaccine also needs to be administered outside traditional hours so that people who work hourly, frontline jobs, do not have to miss work. Communities, he said, should consider a plan to transport poor families without vehicles to health facilities to receive the vaccine.
“You have to say, ‘I want to make sure everyone gets this,'” said Benjamin. “We have to make sure that we think of all the ways that people can give in (to be vaccinated) and we have to make sure that we have a vaccine available to them when they call.”
Some researchers said it was alarming to have such early disparities in the process, when most people vaccinated are health professionals.
Dr. Fola May, a health equity researcher at the UCLA Health Equity Center at Kaiser Permanente, said she expects health professionals to be the most informed and least hesitant about science.
May fears that this could be indicative of greater racial differences when the vaccine becomes widely available.
“I think we blew it,” said May. “If we are seeing this in this population that should be less prejudiced against science, then when we look at the larger populations, we will have even fewer people with the right information and access.”
CNN’s Nicquel Terry Ellis and Priya Krishnakumar contributed to this report.