Hundreds of coronavirus vaccine appointments have been left unfulfilled at the new mass vaccination site at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
The site only has time slots for Bronx residents, because the district has the highest positivity rate in the city.
But when DailyMail.com visited Somosvaccinations.com on Thursday afternoon, the day the website was launched, at least 300 spaces had not been reserved between 7 and 12 February.
Lawmakers criticized the city for its “poor publicity,” especially among the large number of black and Latino residents of the Bronx, many of whom were wary and reluctant to receive the shot.
On Thursday, New York City opened a mass vaccination site at the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, but by the afternoon, at least 300 appointments had not yet been completed between Feb. 7 and 12 (left and right).
New York City Councilman Mark Levine criticized the city for poor publicity and said there needed to be more pitchers to assist with scheduling appointments. Pictured: Vaccination slots at Yankee Stadium
However, a dark history of medical experiments has fueled the hesitation of minority communities. Pictured: Workers hold barricades outside Yankee Stadium a day before the vaccination site opens on Feb. 4
New York City Councilman Mark Levine, who represents New York City District 7 (upstate Manhattan), shared on Twitter a screenshot of the many time slots for appointments that have not been filled.
“There are still … vaccine applications available at Yankee Stadium next week. They’re not going away anytime soon he wrote Thursday.
“This is good news, but also bad news. It means New York is not doing enough outreach with the people on the ground. The city should have teams across the territory. [Bronx] enrolling people “.
Levine lamented that not enough campaign equipment had been sent to the city to register residents.
“Everyone, please help spread the word. We don’t want any [appointment] slot not to be used! he tweeted.
When Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the COVID-19 mass vaccination site at Yankee Stadium would open, he said it would ensure fair distribution of shots.
“It is very clear that black, Latino and poor communities have been the hardest hit by COVID, and the Bronx is no exception,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our efforts to target vaccinations for sites with higher positivity rates have been working not only to keep the infection rate low, but to help ensure fairness in our vaccine distribution process.”
Since the launch began in mid-December, there have been fewer vaccines among blacks and Latin Americans.
Vaccination rates match the population share of white people, but blacks and Latinos only account for 5.4% and 11.5% according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This is despite the fact that blacks account for 12.5% and Latinos account for 19% of the American 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 black residents, according to city demographics.
However, according to CDC data, blacks and Latin Americans are about 1.5 times more likely to come in contact with the virus than white Americans and about three times more likely to die.
But it is not just disparities, such as access to health, that cause these sharp differences. Some blacks and Latinos are reluctant to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
In New York City, white residents are three times more likely to receive the coronavirus vaccine than Latino residents and four times more likely than black residents
Vaccination rates are in line with the proportion of the population of white people, but blacks and Latinos account for only 5.4% and 11.5% of vaccines, although they account for 12.5%. and 19% of the U.S. population, according to CDC data
This is because, in the past, racist health policies have taken over American communities of color.
One of the best known examples is the Tuskegee 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 never received treatment to cure the sexually transmitted infection.
“If you think historically of African Americans in the U.S. in terms of the history they’ve had regarding their interaction with the health care system, it’s clear that we know the Tuskegee study,” said Dr. Diana Grigsby-Toussaint, an associate professor at behavioral and social sciences department of the epidemiology department, Brown University School of Public Health told Healthline.
Tuskegee wasn’t so long ago. The last surviving member died in 2004. It is not something that is far away. It is still in people’s memory.
There were also eugenics movements that saw black, Latino, and Native American women sterilized across the country in the 20th century.
Grigsby-Toussaint said these previous experiments that led to the use of people of color as “guinea pigs” could upset people with new vaccinations.
A November 2020 report by Unidos US, NAACP, and COVID Collaborative found that only 14% of black Americans and 34% of Latin Americans trust coronavirus vaccines to be 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 mistrust and racial inequality.
“We have a deep problem of mistrust and hesitation, especially in communities of color,” he said during a press conference Sunday.
“We have a privilege issue, clearly, where people who have been privileged have been able to access the [vaccines] more easily.
“We need to have a more systematic approach to ensure we focus on the places where the danger is greatest.”
De Blasio said the city plans to reorganize the city’s programming website and add more vaccination sites to improve.
He added that the application forms will be available in more languages, apart from English and Spanish, such as Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Haitian Creole.