In Houston, 43% of the population that has already received a vaccine is white, compared to 21% Hispanic, 15% Asian and 18% black, according to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
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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 colorful communities. .
Turner joined other elected leaders in the Houston area on Saturday, Feb. 6, to discuss how the city plans to combat these inequalities and reduce the disparity observed in high-risk, vulnerable and underserved communities.
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He addressed two key parts of the plan that he and other local leaders said they intended to follow.
The first is that Houston and Harris County will work to be more “intentional and directional” with the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Turner acknowledged that mass vaccination sites are good for numbers, not equity. This means that there are a lot of people who show up to get a dose of vaccine, but most of the people who show up don’t come from minority communities.
He said the state should send more vaccines to the Houston Department of Health and Harris County Public Health, because it is the departments that provide the vaccines to the smaller community clinics.
He also said that addressing this vaccine allocation disparity to smaller community clinics that are present in minority communities will directly address the hesitation to get the vaccine.
“When they see neighbors and family (people who know they get vaccinated), they won’t want to stay out,” he said.
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The second key part of the plan is to work constructively to share vaccine doses with other providers.
“You could have the best medical care in the world, but what if you can’t access it? It doesn’t matter,” Turner said.
According to the mayor, Harris County public health hospitals have received fewer doses of vaccine than other providers. But 88% of Harris Health hospital vaccines have been targeted at people of color.
Many of the hospitals in the Harris health care system are “closer to where people live,” Turner said, making them the perfect providers to help make vaccines available and accessible to minority communities. Harris Health is also the only new hospital safety system in the area, serving low-income or uninsured people, 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 providers and FQAC clinics, such as the Hope Clinic and the Ibn Sina Clinic.
The city has also determined priority zip codes, using data on age, race and ethnicity to determine where vaccine distribution is low, said Stephen Williams, director of the Houston Department of Health. COVID-19 vaccines were distributed Saturday at the Settegast Health Center in northeast Houston, which belongs to one of the priority zip codes.
“There is nothing genetically different in people that makes them more likely to contract COVID-19,” Dr. David Persse, the city’s main health authority. “There are social inequalities present. We should be smarter than the problem.”
In general, Turner said, problems will begin to be mitigated when more doses of vaccine are made available and distributed to minority community providers.
“If we don’t stand up and speak out against the inequalities that occur, who will?” Turner said.
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