SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Teresa Parada is exactly the kind of person California officials, with an equitable vocation, say they want to vaccinate: she is a retired factory worker who speaks little English and lives in a hard-hit part of Los Angeles County. Angeles.
But Parada, 70, has waited weeks while other people his age go to Dodger Stadium or receive the coronavirus through large hospital networks. The place where she usually receives medical care, AltaMed, is currently receiving enough supply to vaccinate her later this month.
Parada said television reports show people queuing for shots, but “I only see vaccines going to Anglos.”
“It’s strange to see a Latin for the vaccine. When will it be our turn? She said.
Governor Gavin Newsom has repeatedly called equity his “North Star” for vaccinating a diverse state of about 40 million. He partnered with the federal government to establish mass vaccination sites in working-class neighborhoods of Oakland and Los Angeles. And that’s a big part of why he commissioned insurer Blue Shield to centralize California’s patchwork vaccine system, asking hospital chain Kaiser Permanente to help it.
However, officials at community health centers that consider themselves the backbone of the safety net for the poor in the U.S., focused on health equity, say they do not receive enough doses for their patients, residents with a lot of risk that the state needs to vaccinate.
In California, nearly 1,400 centers offer free or low-cost services to about 7 million people, many of them communities with a higher concentration of low-income families and few providers taking Medicaid, which in California is known as Medicaid. Cal. Many of their clients speak a language other than English, work long hours, have no transportation, and want to go to trusted health care professionals.
Dr. Efrain Talamantes, chief operating officer of AltaMed Health Services, said it was discouraging to see how the initial doses went elsewhere as his patients continued to test positive for the virus.
“There is a clear disparity whenever there is a limited resource,” he said.
Most states are looking for ways to distribute a limited supply of vaccines, resulting in a mix of methods in the absence of a federal plan. Tennessee is among the states that dispense doses based on county populations, while California assigns them to eligible groups, including teachers and farm workers. Gratuity has allowed people with more resources to get scarce vaccines.
Dra. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, president of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, said it seems obvious that the best strategy for getting vaccines in the hardest-hit communities is to turn to places where residents already receive care. But big box administrators tend to think community health centers are less efficient because of their smaller size, he said.
“We are not very imaginative in how to deliver the vaccine efficiently. Our only creative solutions are to build mass vaccination sites and perhaps give people preferential access to those places, ”he said.
As California has intensified vaccination efforts through mobile and emerging clinics in churches, workplaces, and schools, state data show that there have been relatively few shots fired at Latinos and blacks compared to their populations.
African Americans have received 3% of vaccine doses, while they account for 6% of the state. Latinos, who make up 39% of the state, have received 17% of the doses.
Blue Shield officials say they plan to keep health centers that already administer vaccines open, but clinics are concerned that they will not receive enough doses.
State vaccine spokesman Darrel Ng said the governor’s plan for equitable vaccination includes setting aside vaccines for “disproportionately affected communities and ensuring that providers serving those communities are part of the network.” . He said in a statement that it includes sending mobile clinics to places like black churches.
Andie Martinez Patterson, vice president of government affairs for the California Primary Care Association, said that while large-scale health systems can vaccinate people quickly, they probably won’t reach target residents.
Community health centers have worked hard to convince their patients to take the shot, said Alexander Rossel, executive director of Families Together Families in Orange County, adding that his center has inoculated 95% of its patients. 65 years or older.
Health centers were dismayed as the vaccine for health workers initially went to larger hospitals in December. They then saw how richer, Internet-savvy English speakers had time to browse web portals and drive long distances for appointments approaching inoculation areas.
When Orange County began opening large-scale vaccination sites in mid-January, community health centers also requested doses, said Isabel Becerra, chief executive of the County County Coalition of Community Health Centers. Orange.
“We have no transport. We do not speak English. We do not understand the technology you are requesting from us to register and put us online. So can we vaccinate people 65 and older comfortably in their own facilities? “she said.
Jodie Wingo, interim president of the Riverside and San Bernardino County Community Health Association, said member clinics were expanding to inoculate more than 500,000 of its patients. But now they only receive a few dozen doses at a time.
“Everyone is working towards equity, but it doesn’t seem fair. Not at all,” he said.
AltaMed, in Los Angeles and Orange counties, recently began receiving 3,000 doses a week from both counties. The supply should allow customers like Parada, originally from Mexico, to receive the vaccine this month.
AltaMed will send a vehicle to take her to a clinic to make the shot that will protect her when she goes out, with a double mask, to buy from the family.
“It simply came to our notice then. I have to protect myself, ”he said.